Messier 82 Cigar Galaxy

 Messier 82, Cigar Galaxy    Through ensuing supernova explosions and powerful “super” winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation in M82 is driving the prodigous outflow of material.  It is 40% the size of the Milky Way but produces 5X the light and is forming stars at 10X the rate as the Milky Way. Evidence for the superwind from the galaxy’s central regions is clear in this image. The composite highlights emission from filaments of atomic hydrogen gas in reddish hues. The galaxy is 40,000 light years in size and the filaments extend for over 20,000 light-years. Some of the gas in the superwind, enriched in heavy elements coming from massive stars, will eventually escape into intergalactic space. Triggered by a close encounter with the large nearby galaxy Messier 81, the furious burst of star formation in M82 should last about 100 million years or so. M82 is 12 million light-years distant, near the northern boundary of Ursa Major. The image is a composite of two images one taken in Jackson Wy  through a Planewave 20″ telescope and a Finger Lake Instruments PL16803 camera and a second image taken in the Sierra Remote Observatory in California through a  Planewave 17″ telescope and a SBIG STXL 11002 camera.  To make this image there were a total of 234 images, taken over a period of 60 hours including 19 hours of Hydrogen emission to capture the superwind filaments.