Close-up: Galaxy Messier 82 in Ursa Major | Hubble Space Telescope

Close-up: Galaxy Messier 82 in Ursa Major | Hubble Space Telescope

What lurks behind the dense, dusty clouds of this galactic neighbor? There lies the star-powered heart of the galaxy Messier 82 (M82), also known as the Cigar Galaxy. Located just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), the Cigar Galaxy is considered a nearby galaxy. As this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture shows in great detail, it is home to brilliant stars with light shaded by sculptural clouds, clumps and streaks of dust and gas.

It is no surprise that the Cigar Galaxy is so packed with stars, obscured though they might be by the distinctive clouds pictured here. Forming stars ten times faster than the Milky Way, the Cigar Galaxy is what astronomers call a starburst galaxy. The intense starburst period that grips this galaxy has given rise to super star clusters in the galaxy’s heart. Each of these super star clusters contains hundreds of thousands of stars and is more luminous than a typical star cluster. Researchers used Hubble to home in on these massive clusters and reveal how they form and evolve.

This image features something not seen in previously released Hubble images of the galaxy: data from the High Resolution Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The High Resolution Channel is one of three sub-instruments of ACS, which was installed in 2002. In five years of operation, the High Resolution Channel returned fantastically detailed observations of crowded, starry environments like the centers of starburst galaxies. An electronics fault in 2007, unfortunately, left the High Resolution Channel disabled.

Image Description: A close-in view of the center of galaxy M82. Bright, bluish light radiating from the center is due to stars actively forming there. A thick lane of gas, black in the center and red around the edges, crosses the center and blocks much of the light. Thinner strands and clumps of reddish dust cover much of the rest of the view.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. D. Vacca, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2025

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