A Nearby Starburst Galaxy

The Hidden Universe (Episode 2): A Nearby Starburst Galaxy - Exposing the Exploding Cigar Galaxy.

This is the Hidden Universe of the Spitzer Space Telescope, exploring the mysteries of infrared astronomy with your host Dr. Robert Hurt.

M82 has been called an exploding galaxy, and three of NASA's Great Observatories have teamed up to show it like it's never been seen before.

Its been called an exploding galaxy, and three of NASAs Great Observatories have teamed up to show it like its never been seen before.

Sigmund Freud once protested that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. However, astronomers studying the so-called "Cigar Galaxy", have discovered theres much more going on than meets the eye. Thats why theyve looked beyond just visible light to understand this galactic oddity ...

The Cigar Galaxy, more commonly known as M82, lies in the northern skies in the constellation of Ursa Major. Its about 12 million light years away not exactly a next-door neighbor, but pretty close as galaxies go. And while it does look a bit like a cigar, its actually shaped like a disk.

• http://spitzer.caltech.edu/

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Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy) is the prototype nearby starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The starburst galaxy is five times as bright as the whole Milky Way and one hundred times as bright as our galaxy's center.

In 2005, the Hubble revealed 197 young massive clusters in the starburst core. The average mass of these clusters is around 2 × 105 M⊙, hence the starburst core is a very energetic and high-density environment.[5] Throughout the galaxy's center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way Galaxy.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_82