NGC 7814: The Little Sombrero in Pegasus
| APOD
Image Credit &
Copyright: CHART32 Team,
Processing – Johannes Schedler
Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation
Pegasus
and you can find this
expanse
of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. Dominated by NGC 7814, the pretty
field of view would almost
be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is
sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its
resemblance to the brighter more famous M104,
the Sombrero
Galaxy. Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies
seen edge-on, and both have extensive halos and central
bulges cut by a thin disk with thinner dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814
is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years
across. That actually makes the
Little
Sombrero about the same physical size as
its better known namesake, appearing smaller and fainter
only because it is farther away. Very faint dwarf galaxies,
potentially a satellites of NGC
7814, have been discovered in deep exposures of Little Sombrero.
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