When you point a telescope toward the Pegasus constellation, you can discover a scene where the Milky Way stars and distant galaxies unfold. NGC 7814, located in the center, occupies an area that could almost be filled with a full moon.
It is called "the little sombrero" because it resembles the brighter and more famous Sombrero Galaxy (M104). A sombrero is a wide-brimmed Mexican hat. Both the Sombrero Galaxy and the little sombrero are spiral galaxies viewed from the side, characterized by a thin disk and a slender dust lane visible in its silhouette, dividing a wide halo and a central bulge.
In fact, NGC 7814 is approximately 40 million light-years away (a light-year is the distance light travels in one year, about 9.46 trillion kilometers) and is estimated to have a diameter of about 60,000 light-years. This means that the physical size of the little sombrero is nearly similar to that of the Sombrero Galaxy, from which its name is derived. The little sombrero appears smaller and dimmer simply because it is located farther from Earth.