NASA's Chandra X-Ray Telescope Captures New Image of the Cigar Galaxy

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center posted a photo: M82 is an irregular galaxy undergoing intense star formation because of a gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago. M82 was nicknamed the Cigar Galaxy mostly because of its edge-on angle to Earth, which makes its central disk look like an elongated, cigar-shaped oval with small optical telescopes. The galaxy illustrates how violent galactic "exhaust systems" can regulate a galaxy's growth by venting gas outwards. Check out more Chandra images here >> go.nasa.gov/4xf45TD Image description: An irregular galaxy undergoing intense star formation because of a gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago. Chandra X-rays (blue), supplemented by NuSTAR data, show towering superwinds of million-degree gas blowing thousands of light-years out of the galactic disk, with Hubble optical light (yellow, orange and white) showing the galaxy shape, and Webb and Spitzer detailing infrared dust emission (red). M82 was nicknamed the Cigar Galaxy mostly because of its edge-on angle to Earth, which makes its central disk look like an elongated, cigar-shaped oval with small optical telescopes. The galaxy illustrates how violent galactic "exhaust systems" can regulate a galaxy's growth by venting gas outwards. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare, J. Major, and K. Arcand #NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAChandra #ChandraXray #ChandraXrayObservatory #universe #X-rayAstronomy #galaxy #IrregularGalaxy Read more Read more about NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory NASA Media Usage Guidelines