A "New" Sombrero

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Images of galaxies planets stars and nebulae dance across the screen; a white line moves horizontally across the screen. Text: News From The Universe. A New Sombrero. A circular galaxy glows against the dark backdrop of space; stars dot the surrounding darkness. Text: June 13, 2025. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope took a fresh look at an old favorite: the Sombrero Galaxy. The new image, showing the galaxy in near-infrared light, displays a bright center of tightly packed stars, some of which silhouettes the edge of the galaxy's dusty brim. The image lightens and the edge of the galaxy darkens. Text: The darker edge of the galaxy is even more pronounced in the visible-light image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, because visible light is more easily blocked by cosmic dust. The image of the galaxy turns blue. A dot of light shines from its center and its outer dusty edge is a lighter blue than the rest of the image. Stars appearing as points of light speckle the background. Text: In mid-infrared light, also captured by Webb, stars are less prominent, but warm dust glows. Astronomers observe space in various wavelengths of light to get a more complete picture of how the universe works, and all the amazing things it has to show us. The image cycles through differing images of the galaxy. The photo that depicts the dark edge is labeled Hubble The other images are labeled Webb NIR Cam. Text: This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.