Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2023 August 2 [2]The spiral galaxy is shown with many complex red filaments extending out. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble; Processing & Copyright: [6]Harshwardhan Pathak Explanation: Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? [7]M82, as this [8]starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a [9]recent pass near large [10]spiral galaxy [11]M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly [12]expanding gas and dust, however. [13]Evidence indicates that this gas and dust is being driven out by the combined emerging [14]particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic [15]superwind. The dust particles are [16]thought to originate in M82's interstellar medium and are actually [17]similar in size to particles in cigar smoke. The [18]featured photographic mosaic highlights a [19]specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized [20]hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas and dust. The filaments extend for over 10,000 [21]light years. The 12-million light-year distant [22]Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in [23]infrared light and can be seen in visible light with a small [24]telescope [25]towards the [26]constellation of the Great Bear ([27]Ursa Major). APOD in world languages: [28]Arabic, [29]Bulgarian, [30]Catalan, [31]Chinese (Beijing), [32]Chinese (Taiwan), [33]Croatian, [34]Czech, [35]Dutch, [36]French, [37]German, [38]Hebrew, [39]Indonesian, [40]Japanese, [41]Montenegrin, [42]Polish, [43]Russian, [44]Serbian, [45]Slovenian, [46]Spanish, [47]Taiwanese, [48]Turkish, and [49]Ukrainian Tomorrow's picture: launch and landing __________________________________________________________________ [50]< | [51]Archive | [52]Submissions | [53]Index | [54]Search | [55]Calendar | [56]RSS | [57]Education | [58]About APOD | [59]Discuss | [60]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [61]Robert Nemiroff ([62]MTU) & [63]Jerry Bonnell ([64]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [65]Specific rights apply. [66]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [67]ASD at [68]NASA / [69]GSFC, [70]NASA Science Activation & [71]Michigan Tech. U. 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