M82: Images From Space Telescopes Produce Stunning View of Starburst Galaxy

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of AZ/C. Engelbracht

		Chandra X-ray Images of M82, Broadband & 3-Color Chandra's X-ray image reveals gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by the violent outflow of matter blasting out of the galaxy. The eruption can be traced back to the central regions of the galaxy where stars are forming at a furious rate, some 10 times faster than in the Milky Way Galaxy. Many of these newly formed stars are very massive and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. Vigorous mass loss from these stars before they explode, and the heat generated by the supernovas drive the gas out of the galaxy at millions of miles per hour. It is thought that the expulsion of matter from a galaxy during bursts of star formation is one of the main ways of spreading elements like carbon and oxygen throughout the universe. The Chandra X-ray image on the left is shown in the broadband color scheme used in the X-ray/infrared/optical composite.The image on the right is Chandra's 3-color X-ray view where red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays respectively. Scale: Image is 7.9 arcmin across. (Credit: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland)
		Chandra X-ray Images of M82, Rotated 3-Color In these Chandra X-ray images of M82, North is up. Red represents the low energy band, green intermediate, and blue the highest observed energies. The white and yellow sources are those that emit significant amounts of both low- and high-energy X-rays. The red diffuse cloud is caused by hot gas flowing away from the central region of M82. M82 is a galaxy 12 million light years from Earth that is undergoing a burst of star formation. (Credit: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland)
Hubble Optical Image of M82 To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's sixteenth anniversary in April 2006, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), released this image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82. The galaxy is remarkable for its bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds, and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions. The Hubble observation was made in March 2006. Astronomers assembled this 6-image composite mosaic by combining exposures taken with four colored filters that capture starlight from visible and infrared wavelengths as well as the light from the glowing hydrogen filaments. Scale: Image is 7.9 arcmin across. (Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team)		Spitzer Infrared Image of M82 This infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope shows Messier 82, an irregular-shaped galaxy positioned on its side, as a diffuse bar of blue light. Fanning out from its top and bottom like the wings of a butterfly are huge red clouds of dust believed to contain a compound similar to car exhaust. The smelly material, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, can be found on Earth in tailpipes, barbecue pits and other places where combustion reactions have occurred. In galaxies, the stuff is created by stars, whose winds and radiation blow the material out into space. The Spitzer observations for this image were taken in May 2005. Scale: Image is 7.9 arcmin across. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of AZ/C. Engelbracht)