Editor's Note: This is an archive image from 2006.
Images from three of NASA's Great Observatories were combined to create this spectacular, multiwavelength view of the starburst galaxy M82. Optical light from stars (yellow-green/Hubble Space Telescope) shows the disk of a modest-sized, apparently normal galaxy.
Another Hubble observation designed to image 10,000 degree Celsius hydrogen gas (orange) reveals a startlingly different picture of matter blasting out of the galaxy. The Spitzer Space Telescope infrared image (red) shows that cool gas and dust are also being ejected. Chandra's X-ray image (blue) reveals gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by the violent outflow. The eruption can be traced back to the central regions of the galaxy where stars are forming at a furious rate, some 10 times faster than in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Many of these newly formed stars are very massive and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. Vigorous mass loss from these stars before they explode, and the heat generated by the supernovas drive the gas out of the galaxy at millions of miles per hour. It is thought that the expulsion of matter from a galaxy during bursts of star formation is one of the main ways of spreading elements like carbon and oxygen throughout the universe.
The burst of star formation in M82 is thought to have been initiated by shock waves generated in a close encounter with a large nearby galaxy, M81, about 100 million years ago. These shock waves triggered the collapse of giant clouds of dust and gas in M82. In another 100 million years or so, most of the gas and dust will have been used to form stars, or blown out of the galaxy, so the starburst will subside.
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of AZ/C. Engelbracht
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/m82/
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
www.nasa.gov/chandra
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
pierluigi maria, ♥Marcelo Cravero♥, NO SE VENDE PHOTOGRAPHY, mj.foto, and 236 other people added this photo to their favorites.
![Stunning View of Starburst Galaxy (NASA, Chandra, 04/24/06) [EXPLORED]](http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4087/5038531149_44f8ffc699_s.jpg)
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╰⊰✿ Balexia87 32 months ago | reply
Wonderful Scenery... Great Capture!
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NamWizard 32 months ago | reply
Unreal! Fantastic! Congrats to Explore and thanks for sharing! Happy weekend! :-)
todd- 32 months ago | reply
gorgeous
[ via flickriver explore --tmphillips ]
lancelonie 32 months ago | reply
awesome
Paky63 32 months ago | reply
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PhotoSenseDatum 32 months ago | reply
This is gorgeous!
MichaelSenior 32 months ago | reply
Now that is cool
abrelosojos89 32 months ago | reply
sin palabras. es espectacular
2redhead2 32 months ago | reply
How can we fight on this Earth when we are such a little speck in this stunning beauty swirling all around us??
puszka 32 months ago | reply
This Is An Excellent Photo!
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Liamfm . 32 months ago | reply
utterly amazing
andersonjean70 32 months ago | reply
this is extremely Good:)
Congratulations! from
*★ Beautiful Shot ★
Vangelis Feleris 32 months ago | reply
Magnificent!
Vangelis Feleris 32 months ago | reply
It looks like a cosmos projection of our feelings
> dezsö < 32 months ago | reply
found in flickr’s explore interestingness, well done!
imd.paint 32 months ago | reply
Splendid !
bbkendrick@ymail.com 29 months ago | reply
Wwow
Arts'moonika (Ø) 27 months ago | reply
C'est une très belle image. Malgré tout je trouve que l'image originale manque de piqué et elle semble provenir d'un scanner d'image dont l'impression aurait été rayée par quelques frottements. Hubble fait des images de bien meilleure qualité je crois.
It is a beautiful image. Still I think the original image lacks sharpness and it seems to come from a scanner image whose print was scratched by some frictions. Hubble images is much better I think.
bonwaf....м • и 20 months ago | reply
رائع
Darth Prime 20 months ago | reply
Standing Ovation!