Cigar Galaxy (M82) — galaxy, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.
The sky’s archetypal starburst galaxy — its core, shocked by M81’s gravity, is birthing stars so furiously that superwinds of glowing hydrogen erupt thousands of light-years out of its disc.
Cigar Galaxy (M82) is placed at its true position on the sky and at its real measured distance, not as a flat backdrop. Fly out from the Sun in the live 3D view and watch it change from a point of light into structure as you approach, with the scale bar showing just how far out you have travelled.