Constellation: Virgo

Distance: 31 million light years

M104 was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer and comet hunter Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues. At magnitude +8.0 and viewed almost "edge-on", it is a favorite amateur telescope target, demonstrating a bright nucleus, large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane giving it the appearance of a "sombrero" hat.

M104 is one of the most massive objects in the Virgo galaxy clster, with a mass equal to 800 billion suns.  It also has a rich population of globular clusters, estimated to be nearly 2,000 in number, compared with the approximatley 150 in the Milky Way.  M104 is on a growing list of galaxies that contain a central supermassive black hole, containing one billion solar masses.