                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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.

                                2019 July 23

                    M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind
    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Daniel Nobre

   Explanation: Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? M82, as this
   starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near
   large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the
   red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and dust, however. Evidence
   indicates that this gas and dust is being driven out by the combined
   emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic
   superwind. The dust particles are thought to originate in M82's
   interstellar medium and are actually similar in size to particles in
   cigar smoke. The featured photographic mosaic highlights a specific
   color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing
   detailed filaments of this gas and dust. The filaments extend for over
   10,000 light years. The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is
   the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light, and can be seen in
   visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of the
   Great Bear (Ursa Major).

    APOD in other languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing), Chinese
              (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French,
     French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Montenegrin,
         Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian
                      Tomorrow's picture: zodiacal road
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.
