The Sombrero galaxy is notable for its dominant nuclear bulge -- composed primarily of mature stars -- and its nearly edge-on disc composed of stars, gas, and intricately structured dust. The complexity of this dust, and the high resolution of this image, is most apparent directly in front of the bright nucleus, but is also very evident as dark absorbing lanes throughout the disc. A large number of small and slightly diffuse sources can be seen as a swarm in the halo of this galaxy. Most of these are globular star clusters. The 35 million light-year away galaxy has always been one of my favorites. Even as a youngster I was enchanted with its then relatively fuzzy, but bright yellow demeanor.
Using both ESA/ESO/NASA provided software and Photoshop I combined three b&w images (courtesy ESO) shot at 554nm, 657nm and 768nm in 2000 with their Very Large Telescope in the Atacama Desert of Chile and processed them to create this image.