The Spitzer Space telescope has captured this false color image of Galaxy Messier 82 in all it’s smoking glory. The bright red halo around the galaxy is a massive cloud of dust and gas that would normally be floating quietly in the plane of the galaxy itself. However, a furious burst of star formation at the center of the galaxy, and interactions with an even larger galaxy nearby have caused this outflux of material.Note: This dust is only visible in the infrared spectrum, thus the false color image.

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