# @europeanspaceagency on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DPcYm8qjAOr
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/35581664-europeanspaceagency-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/ec6f5b8351.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-10-05T21:59:22.000+00:00

## Caption

Hubble time! 🌌

This is the heart of Messier 82 (M82) — better known as the Cigar Galaxy — just 12 million light-years away in Ursa Major.

@hubbleesa  sharp eye reveals why this galaxy is bursting with activity: it forms stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way. In its core lie dazzling super star clusters — each containing hundreds of thousands of stars, outshining typical clusters by far.
The first image shows the galaxy’s star-packed centre, cloaked in sculptural lanes of gas and dust. The second compares two views: Hubble’s Wide Field Channel image from 2006, and a newly processed look from the High Resolution Channel, which operated from 2002–2007. Together, they show the galaxy’s blazing core in stunning new detail.

A starburst galaxy in every sense — the Cigar Galaxy continues to light up our cosmic neighbourhood.

📸 @europeanspaceagency / @hubbleesa & @NASA, W. D. Vacca; @creativecommons BY 4.0
📸 ESA/Hubble & NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI), W. D. Vacca; CC BY 4.0
📹ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. D. Vacca, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,625
- **Likes:** 8,639
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 40

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ESA - European Space Agency | @europeanspaceagency | https://gondola.cc/europeanspaceagency | Government Organization |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Producer |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Editor |
| Hubble Space Telescope | @hubbleesa | https://gondola.cc/hubbleesa | Photographer |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Social Media Manager |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Publisher |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Copywriter |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Community Manager |

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