Credit: SUBARU TELESCOPE, NAOJ

This latest image from Subaru, one of the world's largest telescopes, was taken by the Faint Object Camera and Spectograph (FOCAS) during its first night of operation in February. The FOCAS instrument is capable of taking two sorts of pictures: images and spectra, which can be chosen at the flick of a switch. Spectra of faint galaxies provide physical information, such as temperature and density, to complement the optical images.

The image here is of the irregular galaxy M82, which is roughly 12 million light years from Earth. The bluish light running across the image comes from stars in the galactic disk. The red filaments flowing out at right angles are produced by ionized hydrogen gas, which is evidence for star formation at the centre of M82.

Subaru — the Japanese name for the constellation Pleiades — was built by Japan's National Astronomical Observatory at the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The 8.2-metre telescope saw its first light early in 1999, but its systems are still being tested and fine tuned. Five of the seven observational instruments have now been added and will soon be ready for routine observations.