M82 is a very dusty galaxy. It is almost four magnitudes brighter in the far infrared than at blue wavelengths. Only very dusty galaxies show such a discrepancy between far infrared and blue wavelengths.Interesting… not even the enlarged Hubble image is sharp or detailed enough for me to notice any individual clusters, especially around the part that Webb zoomed in on. But maybe that’s just me. Are you sure you aren’t comparing Hubble’s entire image to the close up from Webb?There is, in the upper right part of the Webb image, something that looks like a globular cluster and which is completely invisible in the Hubble image. Impressive.
Alex
Because M82 is so dusty, Hubble simply can't peer inside. Here is Hubble's best effort (from 2001, and I don't know if Hubble revisited it):
A violent starburst is going on in the center of M82. JWST can peer through the dusty heart of the Cigar Galaxy and see clusters of stars inside:
The Hubble image shows M82 in its entirety (well, mostly), whereas the JWST image only shows the center of M82. All the bright white dots in the JWST image are star clusters, and the fainter dots are most likely individual stars. (Well, admittedly, there is a lonely-looking elongated white thing below center right that looks like a galaxy to me.)
Surely a number of supernovas popping off must have added to this superwind?APOD Robot wrote:
Although this starburst galaxy was surely stirred up by a recent pass near its neighbor, large spiral galaxy M81, this doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and dust. Evidence indicates that this material is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic superwind.
Ann
Statistics: Posted by Ann — Mon Apr 15, 2024 12:10 pm — Replies 3 — Views 171