X-ray + H-alpha Image of M82

This image shows the superposition of X-ray (blue) and H-alpha (red) images of M82. The X-ray image shows that location of the log T = 6-7 gas, while the H-alpha shows log T = 4 photoionized gas. The close association of X-ray and H-alpha morphology is typical in supernova remnants, showing that in a sense the superwind in M82 is similar to a kpc-scale supernova remnant. The scale of the image is 10' by 10', or 10 kpc by 10 kpc assuming a distance to M82 of 3.6 Mpc.

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