explains<\/a>. <\/p>\nAnd study astronomers do. A team of them recently completed an imaging survey of M82 using the James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). The observations totaled 65 hours and helped the space telescope discover never-before-seen details, including M82\u2019s \u201cdistended disk structure and millions of individual stars.\u201d In total, the image above includes 16.5 million individual stars. To help put that into perspective, the next-nearest star to Earth besides the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is roughly 25 trillion miles away. <\/p>\n
\u201cWebb\u2019s high-resolution imaging, specifically of the main plane of the galactic disk, has unlocked vital information for astronomers as they seek to uncover M82\u2019s formation history,\u201d NASA says. <\/p>\n
\u201cM82 is a mess, but it\u2019s a beautiful mess. We don\u2019t fully understand what\u2019s going on, especially concerning its evolutionary history. What could have triggered such an elevated rate of star formation? How long has this galaxy been driving plumes of material away from its center?\u201d explains Adam Smercina, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and incoming Assistant Professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts. <\/p>\n
\u201cM82 is an ideal galaxy evolution laboratory because it has properties that allow us to probe important physical processes, such as how stars form in such environments and how that activity drives outflows. M82 provides a simultaneous window onto many astrophysical questions, in a way that no other galaxy in the local universe can.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Full-Res-For-Print2-800x540.jpg\")
\u2018NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope recently observed edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82), nicknamed the Cigar Galaxy. Webb\u2019s near-infrared-light view is a snapshot in time, revealing a scene that has been evolving over a couple hundred million years. In near-infrared light, astronomers can see the galaxy\u2019s distended disk structure and millions of individual stars \u2014 approximately 16.5 million \u2014 for the first time.\u2019 | NIRCam-only <\/p>\n
As expected, JWST is far from the first telescope to peer deeply into the mysteries of the Cigar galaxy. The image at the top includes data from the legendary Hubble Space Telescope, which adds interesting color (wavelength) information, particularly dust grains (red-orange) and ionized hydrogen gas (yellow). The image above includes only data from NIRCam, and it\u2019s nearly as spectacular and includes just as many stars, maybe even more, thanks to Webb\u2019s superior ability to peer through cosmic gas and dust. <\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s exceptional capabilities are on full display in the comparison shot below, which shows Hubble\u2019s image on the left and Webb\u2019s on the right. Hubble does a great job at capturing M82\u2019s fascinating gas and dust structure, while Webb can pierce through it. <\/p>\n
![\"Side-by-side](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Full-Res-For-Print1-800x400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sheer number of stars that we were able to resolve with Webb is incredible,\u201d says team member Benjamin Williams of the University of Washington. \u201cIt\u2019s a whole different world from what we\u2019ve been able to see with other telescopes. All of these stars collectively provide a detailed fossil record of the formation and evolution of M82.\u201d <\/p>\n
Scientists note that the star formation in M82 is about \u201c10 times faster\u201d than in the Milky Way galaxy. Determining exactly why that is has proven challenging, but astrophysicists are on a steady path toward greater understanding, and space telescopes like Webb are instrumental to that progress. <\/p>\n
\u201cGalaxies are such intricate ecosystems that if you truly want to understand them, you have to pull datasets from different missions together,\u201d adds team member Kristen McQuinn of the Space Telescope Science Institute. \u201cOne mission cannot fully answer all of the questions we have about M82. Combining the data collected by different telescopes, like Webb and Hubble, is powerful. When you marry the datasets, you expand what you can probe, and the questions that you can pose are even more complex.\u201d <\/p>\n
Image credits:<\/strong> NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Scientists used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope to image edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 and trace its evolutionary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[582,18,7443,7446,19,17,25442,25443,133,451,15450],"class_list":["post-554027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-eire","tag-galaxy","tag-hubble","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jameswebbspacetelescope","tag-jwst","tag-science","tag-space","tag-webb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116812556324584661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Full-Res-For-Print3-800x540.jpg\")
\u2018Scientists used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope to image edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 and trace its evolutionary history. This Webb and Hubble composite image includes 16.5 million stars (blue-white), dust grains (red-orange), and ionized hydrogen gas (yellow).\u2019 <\/p>\n