Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Infrared Visible Andromeda

NASA ^ | December 13, 2014 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: This remarkable synthetic color composite image was assembled from archives of visible light and infrared astronomy image data. The field of view spans the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), a massive spiral a mere 2.5 million light-years away. In fact, with over twice the diameter of our own Milky Way, Andromeda is the largest nearby galaxy. Andromeda's population of bright young blue stars lie along its sweeping spiral arms, with the telltale reddish glow of star forming regions traced in space- and ground-based visible light data. But infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, also blended directly into the detailed composite's red and green color channels, highlight the the lumpy dust lanes warmed by the young stars as they wind even closer to the galaxy's core. Otherwise invisible at optical wavelengths, the warm dust takes on orange hues. Two smaller companion galaxies, M110 (below) and M32 (above) are also included in the frame.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope, Mayall 4M Telescope (KPNO, NOAO), Digitized Sky Survey, Spitzer Space Telescope; Processing & Copyright: Robert Gendler]

[SunkenCiv]

Wow. Wait'll you see the Big One.

The Big One

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[left that other site]

I Strain!

[TheOldLady]

That’s a proud beauty!

Andromeda is 200,000 light years across?
The Milky Way is 100,000 light years wide, right?

Thank you for the post and ping.

[mikrofon]

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