The Heart of Galaxy Messier 82 in Ursa Major: MIRI view | Webb Telescope

The Heart of Galaxy Messier 82 in Ursa Major: MIRI view | Webb Telescope

This new image from Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) provides a remarkable, mostly starless view of Messier 82 (M82). The image is instead dominated by the emission from warm dust and intricate clouds of sooty organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs. It is located just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Despite being smaller than the Milky Way, M82 is five times as luminous as our home galaxy and forms stars ten times faster. M82 is classified as a starburst galaxy because it is forming new stars at a rate much faster than expected for a galaxy of its mass, especially at its center. In visible-light images of M82, the central hotbed of activity is obscured by a network of thick and dusty clouds. 

What caused M82’s burst of star formation? The answer likely lies with its neighbor, the larger spiral galaxy M81. Researchers suspect that the two galaxies have interacted gravitationally, sending gas pouring into M82’s center millions of years ago. The influx of gas provided the raw material for new stars to form—and form they did! M82 is home to more than 100 super star clusters with a portion still in the process of forming. They are blanketed with dense, dusty gas. Super star clusters are more massive and luminous than typical star clusters. These each contain hundreds of thousands of stars.

Image Description: An image of the central part of galaxy M82. Its disc, a narrow bar from the top to the bottom of the image, can be seen by its intense blue-white glow. Thick clouds of gas cover the scene, erupting from the galaxy’s core out to the left and right. The gas is mostly pale red in color and richly textured, with ridges and cavities visible in great detail. A few stars in M82 are visible scattered across the gas.

The James Webb Space Telescope is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Bolatto

Release Date: June 30, 2025

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