Messier 82 галактикасы: Жұлдыздардың жарқырауы және ғарыштық құбылыстар

Starburst galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major

Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82) is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is the second largest member of the M81 Group, with the D25 isophotal diameter of SN 2014J, a type Ia supernova, was discovered in the galaxy on 21 January 2014. In 2014, in studying M82, scientists discovered the brightest pulsar yet known, designated M82 X 2. In November 2023, a gamma ray burst was observed in M82, which was determined to have come from a magnetar, the first such event detected outside the Milky Way (and only the fourth such event ever detected).

M82, with M81, was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774; he described it as a "nebulous patch", this one about 3/4 degree away from the other, "very pale and of elongated shape". In 1779, Pierre Méchain independently rediscovered both objects and reported them to Charles Messier, who added them to his catalog.

M82 was believed to be an irregular galaxy. In 2005, however, two symmetric spiral arms were discovered in near infrared (NIR) images of M82. The arms were detected by subtracting an axisymmetric exponential disk from the NIR images. Even though the arms were detected in NIR images, they are bluer than the disk. The arms had been missed due to M82's high disk surface brightness, the nearly edge on view of this galaxy (~80°),

In 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope revealed 197 young massive clusters in the starburst core. In the core of M82, the active starburst region spans a diameter of 500 pc. Four high surface brightness regions or clumps (designated A, C, D, and E) are detectable in this region at visible wavelengths. M82, like most galaxies, hosts a supermassive black hole at its center.

In April 2010, radio astronomers working at the Jodrell Bank Observatory of the University of Manchester in the UK reported an object in M82 that had started sending out radio waves, and whose emission did not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before. There have been several theories about the nature of this object, but currently no theory entirely fits the observed data. However, all known microquasars produce large quantities of X rays, whereas the object's X ray flux is below the measurement threshold. Apparent superluminal motion is consistent with relativistic jets in massive black holes and does not indicate that the source itself is moving above lightspeed. Ignoring any difference in their respective distances from the Earth, the centers of M81 and M82 are visually separated by about 130,000 light years. The actual separation is 300.

As a starburst galaxy, Messier 82 is prone to frequent supernova, caused by the collapse of young, massive stars. The first (although false) supernova candidate reported was SN 1986D, initially believed to be a supernova inside the galaxy until it was found to be a variable short wavelength infrared source instead. The first confirmed supernova recorded in the galaxy was SN 2004am, discovered in March 2004 from images taken in November 2003 by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. It was later determined to be a Type II supernova. In 2008, a radio transient was detected in the galaxy, designated SN 2008iz and thought to be a possible radio only supernova, being too obscured in visible light by dust and gas clouds to be detectable. A similar radio only transient was reported in 2009, although never received a formal designation and was similarly unconfirmed.