The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104

Messier object

The Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects first listed by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1771. The original motivation of the catalogue was that Messier was a comet hunter, and was frustrated by objects which resembled but were not comets...

or NGC 4594

New General Catalogue

The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars is a well-known catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy. It contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects...

 ) is an unbarred spiral galaxy

Unbarred spiral galaxy

An unbarred spiral galaxy is a type of spiral galaxy without a central bar, or one that is not a barred spiral galaxy. It is designated with an SA in the galaxy morphological classification scheme.The Sombrero Galaxy is an unbarred spiral galaxy....

 in the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Virgo

Virgo (constellation)

Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky...

 located 28 million light years from earth. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane

Dust lane

A dust lane is a relatively dense obscuring band of interstellar dust, observed as a dark swath against the background of a brighter object, especially a galaxy.-See also:* Interplanetary medium - interplanetary dust...

 in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero

Sombrero

Sombrero in English refers to a type of wide-brimmed hat originating in Mexico. In Spanish, however, it is the generic word for "hat", which originates from "sombra", meaning "shade"....

. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 of +9.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes.