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Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Andromeda Galaxy in Ultraviolet
APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 18 Jul, 2021 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, GALEX

Posted on 07/18/2021 6:31:55 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: What does the Andromeda galaxy look like in ultraviolet light? Young blue stars circling the galactic center dominate. A mere 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, really is just next door as large galaxies go. Spanning about 230,000 light-years, it took 11 different image fields from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite telescope to produce this gorgeous portrait of the spiral galaxy in ultraviolet light in 2003. While its spiral arms stand out in visible light images, Andromeda's arms look more like rings in ultraviolet. The rings are sites of intense star formation and have been interpreted as evidence that Andromeda collided with its smaller neighboring elliptical galaxy M32 more than 200 million years ago. The Andromeda galaxy and our own comparable Milky Way galaxy are the most massive members of the Local Group of galaxies and are projected to collide in several billion years -- perhaps around the time that our Sun's atmosphere will expand to engulf the Earth.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: andromedagalaxy; galaxy; hubble; nasa
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To: beethovenfan
Is there a name for the blue star in the lower left?

Not sure what that is, maybe someone else will know and comment.

21 posted on 07/19/2021 2:29:02 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
And yet there are scientists...astronomers...who are *convinced* that there's no God!

But then there are scientists who are convinced that Chastity Bono is a guy so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

22 posted on 07/19/2021 3:22:09 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Trump: "They're After You. I'm Just In The Way")
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To: Steely Tom

Unless you are in one of the few and rapidly disappearing spots on earth still unaffected by light pollution, those days are gone.

Too many morons throwing up million watt equivalent floodlights around their house they leave on all night while they are inside sleeping and watching TV.


23 posted on 07/19/2021 3:30:38 AM PDT by hopespringseternal
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To: Gay State Conservative
And yet there are scientists...astronomers...who are *convinced* that there's no God! But then there are scientists who are convinced that Chastity Bono is a guy so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

You got that right!!!

24 posted on 07/19/2021 3:34:55 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
A mere 2.5 million light-years away

The distance light travels in a year times 2.5 million......I'm constantly blown away by numbers like that...it's incomprehensible.

25 posted on 07/19/2021 3:55:34 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: MtnClimber

LOVE it! :-)


26 posted on 07/19/2021 4:50:41 AM PDT by left that other site (If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. (Isaiah 7:9))
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To: MtnClimber

The stars, like dust.


27 posted on 07/19/2021 5:47:46 AM PDT by Joe Brower ("Might we not live in a nobler dream than this?" -- John Ruskin)
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To: Joe Brower

28 posted on 11/06/2021 10:12:05 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Steely Tom

Heh, thanks. The comparison is pure poetry, Asimov-style.


29 posted on 11/07/2021 10:27:34 AM PST by Joe Brower ("Might we not live in a nobler dream than this?" -- John Ruskin)
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