# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BupPxSdICNu
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11734688-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/ac0ad2b8f8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2019-03-05T23:07:02.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

This is the Cigar Galaxy (also called M82), a starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. 
Using our SOFIATelescope observatory, researchers found the galactic wind flowing from the Cigar Galaxy weighs quite a lot: it carries the equivalent mass of 50 to 60 million Suns in gas and dust! Aligned along a magnetic field, the wind transports these materials into intergalactic space. 
The magnetic field is shown as streamlines in this composite image, which combines starlight (gray) and a tracing of hydrogen gas (red) from the Kitt Peak Observatory, with near-infrared and mid-infrared starlight and dust (yellow) from SOFIA and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Image Credit: NASA/SOFIA/E. Lopez-Rodiguez; NASA/Spitzer/J. Moustakas et al.

#galaxy #magneticfields #space #outerspace #imageoftheday #picoftheday #astronomy #nasa

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## Tags

nasa, outerspace, picoftheday, magneticfields, space, galaxy, imageoftheday, astronomy

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