Pixinisght and Photoshop

The beautiful starburst galaxy M82 is located in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered in 1774 by German Astronomer Johann Elert Bode.
M82 is undergoing a huge amount of star formation in its core and due to this massive star formation, emits large amounts of hydrogen gas, seen here in red light. A possible theory is that gravitational interactions are occurring with the close neighboring galaxy, M81, and are causing this massive star formation to occur.
M82 is approximately 12 million light-years distant and about 1/2 the size of our Milky Way galaxy. M82 shines at an apparent magnitude of 8.4.