M82 The Cigar Galaxy - Astrophotography Print

At 12 million light years away, the Cigar Galaxy (M82), is the closest starburst galaxy to Earth. A starburst galaxy is a galaxy that is currently experiences an extremely high rate of star formation, over 10 times that of the Milky Way. This star formation is thought to be caused be M82's interaction with a nearby galaxy M81 which as it passed squeezed parts of the galaxy closer together. Because of massive number of new stars there has also been an increase in star death which you can see as the red vents pushes out of the poles of the galaxy.