Chilean astronomer surprises by capturing a galaxy 30 million light years away with a photograph taken from his cell phone – FayerWayer

2023-04-29 16:11:00

The word limits disappears from the radar when a person sets out to do what he likes. It is the phrase that first occurs to us when we see the work that the Chilean astronomer Sebastián Campos publishes on his social networks.

In mid-2022 we saw how he captured Saturn, with everything and its rings, in an impressive photograph taken with his cell phone. And now, it amazes us once more with a stellar event that is very far from the borders of the Solar System.

Sebastián Campos managed to capture the Sombrero Galaxy, a stellar cluster that is located regarding 30 million light years away. The smartphone he used for this majestic photograph was adapted to one of the telescopes he is in charge of.

In a publication that he makes on his social networks, he explains that the image shows the classic band of dust crossing the galactic disk in the distant group of stars. Sebastián Campos is director of the Galileo Observatory, located in the Pisco Elqui region, in Chile.

Look what I captured with my cell phone! What you see in the photo is the sombrero galaxy! And if light takes 30 million years to reach me. Its classic dust band can be seen crossing the galactic disk.
And if you can visit https://t.co/RuI04MQ1ch pic.twitter.com/EEQIeUO9y0

— Seba Campos (@seba_sirius) April 16, 2023

The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as Messier 104 or NGC 4594, is a spiral galaxy located regarding 30 million light-years away and is located in the constellation Virgo. It gets its name from its distinctive shape that resembles a top hat or straw hat.

It is one of the brightest and most prominent galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and is known for its dense nucleus and prominent dust lane running through its central region. It was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781 and later cataloged by Charles Messier in his famous catalog of astronomical objects.

Such a star cluster is interesting to astronomers because of its structure and its role in the study of spiral galaxies in general. Furthermore, the Sombrero Galaxy harbors a supermassive black hole at its core, which has an estimated mass of around a billion times the mass of our Sun.

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