The European Extremely Large Telescope Lofar, which has one of its stations in Onsala in northern Halland, can contribute to a new understanding of how stars form, shows a recent picture of known as the Cigar Galaxy.
The galaxy, which is formally called Messier 82 (M82), lies 11.5 million light-years away but clearly visible thanks to the telescope, which captures long radio waves.
– There are many who waited for sharp images of M82. Now we have it, says Eskil Varenius, PhD student at Chalmers University in Gothenburg.
The Galaxy has long been popular among astronomers as it formed many new stars there. On Lofars photo also appears remnants of supernovae, that is, massive stars that exploded, clearly as small bright spots.
– It is amazing to see these exploding stars as sharp, then we can follow them one by one and see how they evolve, says Varenius.
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