Details in the Hubble Space Telescope image of the active galaxy M82.
Left: A portion of M82's bluish disk, largely composed of young, hot stars. Numerous bright blue-white star-forming clumps and wisps of darker, cooler dust and gas appear superimposed on the disk.
Center: The central "inner-city" portion of the galaxy showing the combined light of countless stars and revealing numerous star-forming clumps, dark red clouds of gas and dust obscuring the light from the galaxy's core, and an overall field of fainter resolved and unresolved red (cooler) and blue (hotter) stars.
Right: Plumes of gas and dust amid a field of numerous faint, resolved stars blown from the central regions of M82 into the outer "suburbs."
Credits
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | M82, NGC 3034 |
| Object Description | Starburst Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 09h 55m 52.0s |
| Dec. Position | 69° 40' 48.99" |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Distance | 12 million light-years (3.7 Megaparsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST data from proposal M. Mountain (STScI), J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin-Madison), P. Puxley (NSF), K. Noll, H. Bond, C. Christian, L. Frattare, F. Hamilton, Z. Levay, M. Mutchler, W. Januszewski, and T. Royle (Hubble Heritage Team/STScI/AURA). Note: Announcement page with release information on High Level Science Products for M82 (combined and mosaiced fits files for each filter) is available at the |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | March 27-29, 2006, Exposure Time: 13.7 hours |
| Filters | F435W (B), F555W (V), F658N (H alpha), and F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters. Three filters sample broad wavelength ranges, one isolates the light of hydrogen. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F435W (B) Green: F555W (V) Red-orange: F658N (H alpha) Red: F814W (I) |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
