Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Bode's Galaxy  ·  Cigar Galaxy  ·  HD85161  ·  HD85533  ·  HD85828  ·  HD86574  ·  M 81  ·  M 82  ·  NGC 2959  ·  NGC 2961  ·  NGC 3031  ·  NGC 3034  ·  NGC 3077
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M81 M82 in Ha-RGB, Mau_Bard
M81 M82 in Ha-RGB, Mau_Bard

M81 M82 in Ha-RGB

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M81 M82 in Ha-RGB, Mau_Bard
M81 M82 in Ha-RGB, Mau_Bard

M81 M82 in Ha-RGB

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Description

I recorded the RGB in 60' sub-exposures without antipollution filter, that resulted in nearly 500 frames to stack. The first integration attempt failed as PixInsight went short of RAM (I have 16GB). By discarding some 100 sub-frames and dedicating my PC to PixInsight (no other applications) the stacking and drizzle completed successfully, after long hours of number crunching.

M81 Bode's Galaxy
Also known as NGC3031, it is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It has a diameter of 96000 light-years. It has an active galactic nucleus which harbors a 70 million M☉ supermassive black hole; for comparison the Milky Way black hole Sgr A* is 4 million M☉. Messier 81 was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode on 31 December 1774.
It is estimated that M81 has about 210 globular clusters.
M81 is the largest galaxy in the M81 Group, that includes 34 galaxies. Its large and faint satellite galaxy Holmberg IX (PGC28757) is visible just left of it in our picture.
Gravitational interactions of M81 with M82 and NGC 3077 (lower left corner) have stripped hydrogen gas away from all three galaxies, forming gaseous filamentary structures in the group. These interactions have allowed interstellar gas to fall into the centers of M82 and NGC 3077, leading to vigorous star formation or starburst activity there.


Animated Picture: Spitzer IR capture vs my HaRGB image here.
In the IR image, the blue colors represent stellar emission observed at 3.6 μm. The green colors represent 8 μm emission originating primarily from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the interstellar medium.=mw-mmv-title  The red colors represent 24 μm emission originating from heated dust in the interstellar medium.
Spitzer credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


M82 Cigar Galaxy
Also known as NGC3034, it is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away, with a diameter of 40800 light-years. It is about five times more luminous than the Milky Way and its central region is about one hundred times more luminous. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81 and fed by intergalactic matter.
M82 was believed to be an irregular galaxy, however in 2005 two symmetric spiral arms were discovered in near-infrared (NIR) images.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory detected fluctuating X-ray emissions about 600 light-years from the center of M82. Astronomers have postulated that this comes from the first known intermediate-mass black hole, of roughly 200 to 5000 solar masses.
As a starburst galaxy, Messier 82 is prone to frequent supernova, caused by the collapse of young, massive stars.

NGC3077
It is a small disrupted elliptical galaxy, with an active galactic nucleus, 12.8 Mly away. It is part of the M81 group.

NGC2959
Visible in the lower right corner of our image, NGC2959 is a spiral galaxy 218 Mly away with a diameter of 112000 ly.
Close to it is, edge-on, NGC2961, located at the same distance.

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