Eye on the Sky: Andromeda

February 12, 2013 at 12:00 am | Posted in Eye on the Sky, Eye on the Sky, Regular Feature, Science News | Leave a comment
Tags: nasa

This image of Andromeda is via the Herschel Space Observatory (similar to the Hubble Space Telescope). Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own, though still 2.5 million light years away.

Sensitive to the far-infrared light from cool dust mixed in with the gas, Herschel seeks out clouds of gas where stars are born. The new image reveals some of the very coldest dust in the galaxy — only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero — colored red in this image.

By comparison, warmer regions such as the densely populated central bulge, home to older stars, take on a blue appearance.

Intricate structure is present throughout the 200,000-light-year-wide galaxy with star-formation zones organized in spiral arms and at least five concentric rings, interspersed with dark gaps where star formation is absent.

Andromeda is host to several hundred billion stars. This new image of it clearly shows that many more stars will soon to spark into existence.

(via NASA)

Posted By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.