Young and Old Stars Found in Andromeda's Halo
The deepest visible-light image ever taken of the sky resolves approximately 300, 000 stars in the halo of the nearest neighboring spiral galaxy, Andromeda (M31). The photo was taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Because the image captures both faint dwarf stars and bright giant stars, astronomers can estimate the age of the halo population by analyzing its distribution of colour and brightness. The halo is a spherical cloud of stars around Andromeda, located 2.5 million light-years from Earth.
Credit:About the Image
About the Object
Name: | Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31, NGC 224 |
Type: | Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Halo |
Distance: | 2 million light years |
Constellation: | Andromeda |
Category: | Galaxies |
Image Formats
Large JPEG
20.4 MB
Publication TIFF 4K
32.2 MB
Publication JPEG
11.0 MB
Screensize JPEG
647.6 KB
Coordinates
Position (RA): | 0 46 7.17 |
Position (Dec): | 40° 42' 36.26" |
Field of view: | 3.06 x 3.51 arcminutes |
Orientation: | North is 77.9° right of vertical |
Colours & filters
Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
---|---|---|
Optical V | 606 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS |
Optical Pseudogreen (V+I) |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS | |
Infrared I | 814 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS |