NASA’s Webb Pinpoints Millions of Stars Within Cigar Galaxy

 Hey, Space Placers!

Edge-on spiral starburst galaxy Messier 82 as imaged by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Hourglass-shaped red-orange plumes of material are shooting outward from above and below a bright blue-white, disk-shaped center. Messier 82 is set against the black background of space, which has many distant galaxies that appear as small white and orange spirals, ovals, and points of light. Toward the right of Messier 82 is a blue-white star with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of Webb.

Scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 and trace its evolutionary history. This Webb and Hubble composite image includes 16.5 million stars (blue-white), dust grains (red-orange), and ionized hydrogen gas (yellow).
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

This is an incredible pic from JWST! 

If you have ever viewed M82 - the "Cigar Galaxy" -  in a telescope you can recognize the central part of the galaxy. But the entire view is simply astonishing.


M82 WITH SUPERNOVA IN 2014

Greg Redfern

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Sky Guy in VA


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