A new composite image of the Andromeda Galaxy is offering an unprecedented view of our closest spiral galactic neighbor.
Composed by NASA and international space partners, the image combines data from more than a dozen telescopes and ground-based observatories.
Located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth, Andromeda, which is also known as Messier 31m has been a focus of the space community for more than a century, with early observations dating back to at least 1923 by astronomer Edwin Hubble.
A key focus of ongoing studies has been the galaxy’s evolution and structure, which shares many similar features with our own Milky Way.
The new imagery weaves together data from X-rays captured by NASA’s Chandra telescope, the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton spacecraft and several other missions to create a unique view of the galaxy’s features.
“Each type of light reveals new information about this close galactic relative to the Milky Way. For example, Chandra’s X-rays reveal the high-energy radiation around the supermassive black hole at the center of M31 as well as many other smaller compact and dense objects strewn across the galaxy,” NASA stated.
Unlike the Milky Way, which is difficult to observe from within due to dust, gas and Earth’s position inside it, Andromeda can be studied from a great distance, offering astronomers a more complete and unobstructed view.
Despite the insights revealed by this image, many mysteries remain about the spiral galaxy, including the composition of invisible dark matter, how it interacts with other cosmic structures and how many stars and planets it truly contains.
Andromeda is believed to contain hundreds of billions of stars, leading scientists to theorize that it could also host trillions of planets.
Even with an army of advanced space technology available today, no telescope is powerful enough to overcome the vast distance and identify a single planet, or, for that matter, even a star, in detail within Andromeda.
NASA says its upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is among several missions that will help continue to shed light on galaxies like M31.
Named after the agency’s first chief astronomer, the high-tech observatory is expected to launch in 2027 and will feature a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
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