NASA’s Webb Pinpoints Millions of Stars Within Cigar Galaxy

Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously unseen details. M82’s intense star formation, thought to be the result of a galaxy merger, will be a short-lived event in astronomical terms, estimated to last a few hundred million years in its entirety. This temporary phase of extreme star formation relative to the galaxy’s mass, as well as its location in the local universe, are among the factors that make M82, also known as the Cigar galaxy, a one-of-a-kind environment to study. Scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 and trace its evolutionary history. This Webb and Hubble composite image includes 16.5 million stars (blue-white), dust grains (red-orange), and ionized hydrogen gas (yellow). Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) A team of astronomers recently completed an imaging survey with the Webb telescope. This program entailed a total of 65 hours of observation time with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument and revealed never-seen-before details of the starburst galaxy , including its distended disk structure and millions of individual stars. …