M82 “Cigar Galaxy”
May 17, 2020
M82 was taken on 2017 May, with the GSO telescope and the SBIG STF-8300 CCD. It is the result of a LRGB sequence of (6+6+6+10)x600s, for a total of about 7hr, 40m of total exposition.
Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82) is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. A member of the M81 Group, it is about five times more luminous than the whole Milky Way and has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy’s center. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81. As the closest starburst galaxy to Earth, M82 is the prototypical example of this galaxy type.[7] SN 2014J, a type Ia supernova, was discovered in the galaxy on 21 January 2014. In 2014, in studying M82, scientists discovered the brightest pulsar yet known, designated M82 X-2.
