NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured the most detailed image of an area of the Andromeda galaxies (M 31), Our galactic neighbor, which lies more than 2,000,000 light-years from us. This large composite bird’s-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the most sharp and clearest images of this part of our Universe. NASA’s astronomers claim that the Hubble Space Telescope can resolve individual stars within a section of Andromeda’s flat-shaped, lightyears-long disk. The process of creating this image was similar to photographing an entire stretch of beach and resolving every grain of sand. This stunning view contains an incredible number of stars, more than 100 millions of them. Some of these are embedded in star clusters that can be seen within the disk. The ambitious photographic map-making effort (cartography), of the Andromeda Galaxy represents an important milestone in the precision study of large spiral galaxies. NASA released the following statement: “Never before has astronomers been in a position to view individual stars within an external spiral galaxy over so large a contiguous area,” NASA stated. Johnson (University of Washington), R. Gendler.) Hubble Space Telescope tracks densely packed stars that extend to the outermost portion of the galaxy. Views extend from Andromeda’s central bulge through lanes of stars and dust to the outer, less densely populated disk. Large groups of young stars in blue show where star clusters are located. On the right, you can see the stars pulling together within the blue ring. Complex dust structures are indicated by the dark silhouettes. The galaxy is covered by a uniform distribution of cooler-red stars. These red stars trace the evolution of the galaxy over many billions of year. NASA’s astronomers explain: “Because it is 2.5 million light years from Earth, the galaxy is much larger than other galaxies Hubble regularly photographs. This mosaic is made using seven ,398 images taken over individual pointings. The image is part of the PHAT program. Near-ultraviolet and visible wavelengths were used to view the galaxy. The Wide Field Camera 3 was also used. The cropped view of this page shows an area of the Andromeda Galaxy that measures 48,000 light years in its original visible-light color. This panorama was taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys using red and blue filters. This panorama was shown at the 225th Meeting, Astronomical Society Seattle.
