Explanation:
Something strange happened to this galaxy, but what?
Known as the
Cigar Galaxy and cataloged as
M82,
red glowing gas and dust are being cast out from the center.
Although this
starburst galaxy was surely stirred up by a recent pass near its
neighbor,
large spiral galaxy M81,
this doesn’t fully explain the source of the
red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and
dust.
Evidence indicates that this material is being driven out by the combined emerging
particle winds
of many stars, together creating a
galactic superwind.
In the featured images, a
Hubble Space Telescope image in
visible light
is shown on the left, while a
James Webb Space Telescope image of the central region in
infrared light
is shown on the right.
Detailed inspection of the
new Webb image shows, unexpectedly,
that this red-glowing dust is associated with
hot plasma.
Research into the nature of
this strange nearby galaxy will surely continue.
Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240415.html
