The recent post about the IC 342 galaxy (absolutely gorgeous by the way) got me wondering about the bright spot at the center of galaxies. Then I saw M104, which shows its bright center to be a bulge in all three dimensions, going outside the plane of the rest of the circular galaxy. I was thinking it could be just a higher concentration of stars that are too far away to make out individually. But I really don't know. So, what's at the center of these galaxies, and what makes the bulge?