M82: A Busy Galaxy

New Radio View Uncovers More Activity

Recently the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico took a look at the central region of M82. It focused in on an  area covering about 5,200 light-years across and detected radio emissions from ionized gas and fast-moving electrons that are interacting with magnetic fields extending between the stars.  The bright dots indicate regions where stars are being born and other areas where supernova remnants are extending out to interstellar space.

The faint wispy features are quite intriguing. They’re a relatively  new discovery, and could have some connection to superwinds driven by giant knots of star formation. Stars are often very “windy” after they are born, and when you have collections of newborn stars in close proximity to each other, they could drive tremendously strong “winds” away, carrying superheated material with them.

This image is a great example of how modern astronomy is giving us looks at distant objects in more than one wavelength of light. Not all the action in a galaxy is going to be visible to our unaided visible-light-sensitive eyes. Sometimes you have to look beyond what the eye can see, and move beyond what we knew in the past to learn more about an object in the universe.