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Cigar Galaxy

Photo: Messier 82 galaxy with blue disk and plumes of hydrogen

An infrared image of the Messier 82 galaxy, nicknamed the "Cigar galaxy," shows the formation's central plane in blue and white, with a halo of smoky dust in red. This red cloud, composed of hydrocarbon dust similar to car exhaust, is being blown out into space by the galaxy's millions of young stars.

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona