Surprisingly Speedy Galactic Wind
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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
- Composite image of galaxy M82 with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes: X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of AZ/C. Engelbracht; XRISM Collaboration et al. 2026
- Animated graphs comparing lab predictions of M82’s iron with XRISM’s observations: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, JAXA/NASA, XRISM Collaboration et al. 2026
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[00:00:00.00] A white line moves through colorful images of space.
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[00:00:05.35] Title: News from the Universe.
[00:00:11.43] Text: April 3, 2026. Surprisingly speedy galactic wind.
[00:00:19.56] For the first time, astronomers have directly measured the speed of superheated gas billowing from the heart of galaxy M82.
[00:00:32.60] Astronomers are looking for any connection between the galaxy's known, extensive wind and its current burst of star formation.
[00:00:45.64] The X RISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) spacecraft allows unprecedented tracking of gas velocity, and M82's gas was moving faster than expected.
[00:01:03.98] The hot material near the center of the galaxy flies quickly in both directions, stretching out the iron's spectral line.
[00:01:14.78] The amount of stretch tells scientists the iron's velocity.
[00:01:22.84] X RISM clocked M82's hot iron gas moving more than 2 million miles (over 3 million kilometers) per hour.
[00:01:36.88] The galaxy's speedy wind is transporting huge amounts of gas and dust outward from the central starburst region, another puzzle for astronomers to solve.
[00:01:52.93] Astronomers anticipated M82's wind would be moving material equal to about four times the mass of the Sun per year.
[00:02:07.76] But X RISM shows much more: seven Sun-like stars could be created with the material being pushed out of M82.
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[00:02:21.46] For astronomers, X RISM's surprising findings are valuable new pieces in the puzzle picture of how stars, galaxies, and our universe work.
[00:02:37.72] This news was brought to you in part by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.