Hubble's Photomosaic of Andromeda Galaxy Unveils Hundreds of Millions of Stars [View all]

Jan 20, 2025 by News Staff



This the largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble observations. It is a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / B. Williams, University of Washington.


The Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31), which is located 2.5 million light-years away, is the Milky Way’s nearest large galactic neighbor.

Hubble’s sharp imaging capabilities can resolve more than 200 million stars in the galaxy, detecting only stars brighter than our Sun. They look like grains of sand across the beach. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Andromeda’s total population is estimated to be one trillion stars, with many less massive stars falling below Hubble’s sensitivity limit.

“Photographing Andromeda was a herculean task because the galaxy is a much bigger target on the sky than the galaxies Hubble routinely observes, which are often billions of light-years away,” said University of Washington astronomer Zhuo Chen and colleagues.

More:
https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubbles-photomosaic-andromeda-galaxy-13592.html