{"id":921271,"date":"2026-10-05T08:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921271\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:14:09","slug":"apod-2026-october-5-m104-the-sombrero-galaxys-tidal-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921271\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 October 5 &#8211; M104: The Sombrero Galaxy&#8217;s Tidal Streams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: A deep image of the Sombrero galaxy reveals surprises. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sombrero_Galaxy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">M104<\/a> is named the Sombrero galaxy because, on <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2022-april-23-messier-104\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shorter exposures<\/a>, it looks like a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hat#\/media\/File:Pierre_Auguste_Renoir_-_Woman_in_a_Flowered_Hat_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hat<\/a>. A key defining feature of this huge <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/universe\/galaxies\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">galaxy<\/a> is a dark brim of dust that circles the disk galaxy&#8217;s center. A much longer exposure, however, brings up a hairy past where a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stellar_halo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bright, hazy halo<\/a> is revealed that extends well past the central disk and contains many unresolved stars. <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/a-small-black-and-brown-dog-on-a-red-background--DBYgexx_TU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Surprisingly<\/a>, in this stellar haze, structures can be seen that include a <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2024-december-18-ngc-660-polar-ring-galaxy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">diagonal ring<\/a>. These <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2026-july-12-galaxy-ngc-474-shells-and-star-streams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">structures<\/a> and tidal streams provide fresh evidence that <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2024-november-26-the-sombrero-galaxy-from-webb-and-hubble\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">M104<\/a> had a violent past and is surely <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2023-may-31-simulation-a-disk-galaxy-forms\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the result<\/a> of collisions and <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2026-september-4-na-uhane-mahoe-huki-pu-i-ke-ola\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mergers<\/a> of smaller galaxies. Light takes about 30 million years to reach us from the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2023-august-13-the-sombrero-galaxy-in-infrared\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sombrero galaxy<\/a>, which fully spans about 150 thousand <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceplace.nasa.gov\/light-year\/en\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">light years<\/a> across. The <a href=\"https:\/\/app.astrobin.com\/u\/Fox368?i=57wjyb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">featured image<\/a> was taken over seven days in mid-2026 from <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Namibia#\/media\/File:Namibia_(orthographic_projection).svg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Namibia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Your Sky Surprise: <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/apod\/apod-calendar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?<\/a> (post 1995)<br \/>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: a smile\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: A deep image of the Sombrero galaxy reveals surprises. M104 is named the Sombrero galaxy because, on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[292290,49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-921271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}