A deep image featured as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on October 5 has revealed fresh evidence that the Sombrero galaxy had a violent past.

The image of M104 was captured over seven days in mid-2026 from Namibia by photographer Engelbert Vollmer. In short exposures, the galaxy looks like a hat, with a dark brim of dust circling its disk. The much longer exposure shows a bright, hazy halo stretching well beyond the central disk.

Within that haze, astronomers can see a diagonal ring and tidal streams — trails of stars left behind when smaller galaxies were pulled apart by gravity. These structures suggest M104 is the product of collisions and mergers of smaller galaxies over billions of years.

Light from the Sombrero galaxy takes about 30 million years to reach Earth, and the galaxy spans roughly 150,000 light-years across. The long exposure shows details that shorter images miss, giving astronomers new clues about how large galaxies grow by absorbing their neighbors.

Reporting based on: science.nasa.gov, thecanadian.space.