The Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbor, has been captured in breathtaking detail by the Hubble Space Telescope. The massive 2.5-gigapixel panorama shows over 90 million stars and offers a unique glimpse into the history of this spiral galaxy.
A decade-long observing program, PHAST and PHAT, has revealed new insights into Andromeda’s stellar population, merger history, and internal structure. The images depict bright blue star clusters, background galaxies, foreground stars, satellite galaxies, and dust lanes.
The southern disk of Andromeda appears to be more disturbed than its northern counterpart, indicating the effects of a merger history that is still not fully understood. The presence of M32, an early-type dwarf galaxy, hints at a complex merger history that may have occurred billions of years ago.
“It looks like it has been through some kind of event that caused it to form a lot of stars and then just shut down,” said study co-author Daniel Weisz. “This was probably due to a collision with another galaxy in the neighborhood.”
The observations are limited to stars brighter than our Sun, but the images provide a rich dataset for scientists to study Andromeda’s past merger and interaction history.
Future studies will be made possible by the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will capture high-resolution images of the Giant Southern Stream. This telescope will help astronomers piece together Andromeda’s complex history and gain a deeper understanding of this enigmatic galaxy.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/hubbles-2-5-billion-pixel-mosaic-reveals-andromeda-in-breathtaking-detail