Sixteen Images for Spitzer's Sweet 16 | NASA

Sixteen Images for Spitzer's Sweet 16 | NASA

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Messier 82 — also known as the Cigar galaxy or M82 — is a hotbed of young, massive stars. In visible light, it appears as a diffuse bar of blue light, but in this infrared image, scientists can see huge red clouds of dust blown out into space by winds and radiation from those stars. Messier 82 is located about 12 million light-years away in the Ursa Major constellation.

Read more about this image here:

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/234-ssc2006-09-Galaxy-on-Fire-NASA-s-Spitzer-Reveals-Stellar-Smoke