Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Cigar Galaxy  ·  M 82  ·  NGC 3034
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M82 - The Cigar Galaxy, Randal Healey
M82 - The Cigar Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M82 - The Cigar Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M82 - The Cigar Galaxy, Randal Healey
M82 - The Cigar Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M82 - The Cigar Galaxy

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The galaxy Messier 82 is a fairly small galaxy, with a mass less than a tenth of the Milky Way's. At around 12 million light years away, Messier 82 is one of the best studied examples of a “starburst galaxy”. The spikes are “emission lines” from atoms and molecules which emit at very specific wavelengths – in this case carbon, carbon monoxide and ionised nitrogen. The relative brightnesses of the emission lines at different wavelengths tell astronomers information about the environment in which the molecules are sitting, such as the temperature of the gas.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M82 - The Cigar Galaxy, Randal Healey

In these public groups

Cloudy Nights