# 223-Megapixel Photo Shows 16.5 Million Stars and Took Three Days to Capture

> The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently spent 65 hours, or nearly three days, observing the famous spiral galaxy, Messier 82 (M82), also known as the Cigar galaxy. The resulting 223-megapixel image contains 16.

- **Source:** [Petapixel](https://petapixel.com/2026/06/25/223-megapixel-photo-shows-16-5-million-stars-and-took-three-days-to-capture/?utm_source=gearopen.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=feed&utm_content=6a3d9c8e91b1ab46d12c83f7)
- **Published:** 2026-06-25
- **Category:** Cameras
- **Tags:** #galaxy
- **Canonical:** http://localhost:4321/a/6a3d9c8e91b1ab46d12c83f7

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_GearOpen's distilled summary. The full original article is published at Petapixel (source link above); GearOpen does not republish the source's full text._