A New Detailed View of The Cigar Galaxy | James Webb Space Telescope

A New Detailed View of The Cigar Galaxy | James Webb Space Telescope

Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously unseen details. Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034 and the Cigar Galaxy) is a starburst galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major.

The telescope’s near-infrared-light view is a snapshot of a scene that has been evolving over a couple hundred million years. Webb’s image contains approximately 16.5 million individual stars dispersed throughout the galaxy. The starlight from these stellar sources is depicted as luminous blue granules. This is only a small portion of the total amount of stars astronomers think reside in a galaxy like M82, with the majority too faint to be seen.

M82’s intense star formation, thought to be the result of a galaxy merger, will be a short-lived event in astronomical terms, estimated to last a few hundred million years in its entirety. This temporary phase of extreme star formation relative to the galaxy’s mass, as well as its location in the local Universe, are among the factors that make M82, also known as the Cigar galaxy, a one-of-a-kind environment to study.

A team of astronomers recently completed an imaging survey with Webb. This program entailed a total of 65 hours of observation time with Webb’s NIRCam instrument and revealed never-seen-before details of the starburst galaxy, including its distended disc structure and millions of individual stars. Webb’s high-resolution imaging, specifically of the main plane of the disc, has unlocked vital information for astronomers as they seek to uncover M82’s formation history. Additionally, the Webb data will help scientists understand the current processes occurring within the starburst galaxy. 

Prior to Webb, many observatories observed the starburst galaxy, including the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. However, the sheer volume of dust within that galaxy limited the amount of information astronomers could acquire on M82 at high resolution. While Webb has previously looked at this galaxy, the duration of the new imaging survey, combined with the telescope’s infrared sensitivity was an optimal combination that enabled it to pierce through the thick dust.

Moving inward, the increase in brightness and the asymmetrical shape of the galactic disc hints at the spiral galaxy’s unique underlying structure. The differing radii between the two sides suggests that M82 has a distorted shape. This can happen during intense galaxy mergers.

Because of the extreme star formation within the galaxy, ten times faster than the Milky Way galaxy’s star formation rate, stellar birth will eventually be disrupted. M82’s stellar frenzy is causing bipolar plumes of material to be ejected above and below the disc. Although it looks like a tumultuous region, the hourglass-shaped outflows appear to have a layered structure. The yellow tendrils of material closest to the galaxy’s disc represent ionized gas, whereas the orange material farther away depicts small dust grains. These grains are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and are helpful in tracing material in the space between the galaxy’s stars, also known as the interstellar medium.

The information collected as part of this Webb study is just one dataset scientists will analyze as they seek to piece together this starburst galaxy’s formation history.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Smercina (STScI), T. Williams (University of Manchester)

Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)
Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico Bartmann  
Editing: Nico Bartmann  
Written by: Bethany Downer  
Footage and photos: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Smercina (STScI), T. Williams (University of Manchester), A. Pagan (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: June 23, 2026

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