Also known as the Cigar Galaxy because of its appearance, Messier 82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact, through supernova explosions and powerful winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation is driving the stunning red outflows. This image highlights emission from filaments of atomic hydrogen gas in reddish hues. The filaments extend for well over 10,000 light-years.
I recommend checking out the full 66 megapixel image on Gigapan, where you can zoom into all the awesome filamentary details. http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/227686
Image:
Details:
All data was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys by the following proposal: https://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=10776
Red: hlsp_heritage_hst_acs-wfc_m82_f658n_v1_sci, hlsp_heritage_hst_acs-wfc_m82_f814w_v1_sci
Green: hlsp_heritage_hst_acs-wfc_m82_f555w_v1_sci
Blue: hlsp_heritage_hst_acs-wfc_m82_f435w_v1_sci, hlsp_heritage_hst_acs-wfc_m82_f658n_v1_sciProcessing:
- Combine broadband RGB
- Photometric calibration using APASS 7 data
- Subtracting broadband red from H-alpha
- Add subtracted H-alpha to red channel and a bit to blue channel
- Histogram stretch & HDR multiscale transform, iteratativly
- ArcsinH stretch
- Color saturation adjustment
- Background adjustment using a range mask, MMT, and curves
- Large scale structure enhancement using MMT and curves
- Low-scale MMT sharpening
- Local Histogram Equalization
- Brightness adjustment using a luminance mask and curves