{"id":660287,"date":"2026-06-27T00:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660287\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T00:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:54:18","slug":"in-a-new-223-megapixel-image-nasa-captures-16-5-million-stars-of-the-cigar-galaxy-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660287\/","title":{"rendered":"In a New 223-Megapixel Image, NASA Captures 16.5 Million Stars of the Cigar Galaxy \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope is back with another stunner: a new 223-megapixel composite<\/a> featuring about 16.5 million stars that have been evolving over several million years. Captured by Webb\u2019s\u00a0NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) across 65 hours, the enormous image features Messier 82, also known as the Cigar galaxy, which is located 12 million light-years away.<\/p>\n

\u201cM82 is a mess, but it\u2019s a beautiful mess,\u201d said NASA fellow Adam Smercina. \u201cWe don\u2019t fully understand what\u2019s going on, especially concerning its evolutionary history. What could have triggered such an elevated rate of star formation? How long has this galaxy been driving plumes of material away from its center?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"two<\/a>Side-by-side comparison of a portion of starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82) as seen by NASA\u2019s Hubble (left) and James Webb (right) space telescopes. Hubble detailed M82\u2019s gas and dust structure, while Webb pierced through the dust and resolved millions of stars in infrared light.<\/p>\n

Initial speculation includes a galaxy merger causing rapid star formation 10 times faster than that of the Milky Way and lasting a few hundred million years, which researchers describe as \u201ca short-lived event in astronomical terms.\u201d Although we can see many of these stellar objects as blue granules, there are likely many more invisible to us. <\/p>\n

Hubble had previously looked at the galaxy, but the technology was unable to capture the same detail as Webb. As shown in a side-by-side comparison, Hubble captures many of the dust grains and ionized hydrogen gas depicted in red, orange, and yellow, while Webb<\/a> highlights the staggering density of stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cGalaxies are such intricate ecosystems that if you truly want to understand them, you have to pull datasets from different missions together,\u201d said Kristen McQuinn, of the Space Telescope Science Institute. \u201cOne mission cannot fully answer all of the questions we have about M82. Combining the data collected by different telescopes, like Webb and Hubble, is powerful. When you marry the datasets, you expand what you can probe, and the questions that you can pose are even more complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"an<\/a>M82 Cigar Galaxy (NIRCam Image). NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope observed edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82, peering through dust to reveal 16.5 million stars and the galaxy\u2019s distended disk structure. Scientists seek to learn the galaxy\u2019s evolutionary history with the Webb data.<\/p>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n

Hide advertising<\/p>\n

Save your favorite articles<\/p>\n

Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop<\/a><\/p>\n

Receive members-only newsletter<\/p>\n

Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope is back with another stunner: a new 223-megapixel composite featuring about 16.5 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10559,90,416,1588,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-660287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-james-webb-space-telescope","tag-science","tag-space","tag-stars","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}