M82 Great Observatories – Chandra/Spitzer/Hubble (Annotated)

Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble Telescope! – Starburst Galaxy M82

To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 16 years of success, the two space agencies involved in the project, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), are releasing this image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle...

Active Galaxy M82 Details

Details in the Hubble Space Telescope image of the active galaxy M82. Left: A portion of M82's bluish disk, largely composed of young, hot stars. Numerous bright blue-white star-forming clumps and wisps of darker, cooler dust and gas appear superimposed on the disk. Center: The...

Disk of M82

A portion of M82's bluish disk, largely composed of young, hot stars. Numerous bright blue-white star-forming clumps and wisps of darker, cooler dust and gas appear superimposed on the disk.

Nucleus of M82

The central "inner-city" portion of the galaxy showing the combined light of countless stars and revealing numerous star-forming clumps, dark red clouds of gas and dust obscuring the light from the galaxy's core, and an overall field of fainter resolved and unresolved red...

Hydrogen Plume in M82

Plumes of gas and dust amid a field of numerous faint, resolved stars blown from the central regions of M82 into the outer "suburbs."

Chandra/Hubble/Spitzer X-ray/Visible/Infrared Image of M82

Composite of multi-wavelength images of the active galaxy M82 from the three Great Observatories: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope. X-ray data recorded by Chandra (courtesy of NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland) appears here in blue; infrared...

Compass and Sacle File for Detailed Images of M82

Location key to detailed images of the Hubble M82 image superimposed onto full image. The details are of the disk, nucleus, and a hydrogen plume.

M82 Chandra: X-ray

Composite image of the active galaxy M82 from x-ray observations by Chandra X-Ray Observatory in three energy bands coded in red (lowest energy x-ray photons), green, and blue (highest energy).

M82 Spitzer: Infrared

Composite image of the active galaxy M82 from infrared observations by Spitzer Space Telecope in three wavelength bands coded in red (longest wavelength), green, and blue (shortest wavelengths). Visit Related Link to Spitzer/Caltech image Release of M82 for more information.

Ursa Major Constellation and Galaxy M82

Galaxy M82 is located about 12 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Ursa Major is seen in this ground-based image taken by Akira Fujii.

The M82 Neighborhood with M81 and NGC 3077 (DSS)

A view of three nearby galaxies: M82, M81 and NGC 3077 taken in red light with the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Schmidt telescope as part of the Digitized Sky Survey. The extent of the Hubble image of M82 is indicated by an outline.

M81 and M82 from the Ground

This image was taken with a 16" Cassagrain telescope in red, green, blue and Halpha filters. The observation was made January - March 2006 at Panther Observatory in Austria. The imager notes that 900 minutes of exposure time were used for this image, a personal record.

M82 Ground-based Image

This image was taken with a 20" Carbon Truss Ritchey-Chrétien telescope in red, green, blue and Halpha filters (H-alpha data courtesy of J. Misti). The observation was made at Nighthawk Observatory at New Mexico Skies.

Zoom Animation into M82

Zoom through the northern spring sky, in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear, to the galaxy known as Messier 82 (M82), or the Cigar Galaxy. The observations were made by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Astronomers combined four color-filter images...

Pan Across M82 (Details to Full-field: Forward)

Fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen are blasting out of the central nucleus of the galaxy M82. Panning across the elliptical center, bright patches of star clumps, dust lanes and individual star clusters are resolved in these sharp Hubble images. Stars are crammed into tiny...

Pan Across M82 (Full-field to Details: Reverse)

Stars are crammed into tiny but massive star clusters that congregate by the dozens to form super star clusters in the core of M82. Panning across the elliptical center, bright patches of star clumps, dust lanes and individual star clusters are resolved in these sharp Hubble...

M82 Great Observatories – Chandra/Spitzer/Hubble

M82 is shown in all its wavelength glory. Dissolving from Chandra X-ray Observatory images of three X-ray energy bands to images in three bands of the infrared spectrum taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope, and ending with the Hubble Space Telescope's visible- and near-infrared-...