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Credit & Copyright: Andrew Fryhover
Explanation:
What are those red clouds surrounding the Andromeda galaxy?
This galaxy, M31, is often imaged by planet Earth-based astronomers.
As the nearest large spiral galaxy, it is a familiar sight
with dark dust lanes, bright yellowish core, and
spiral arms traced
by clouds of bright blue stars.
A mosaic of well-exposed broad and narrow-band image data,
this deep portrait of our
neighboring island universe offers
strikingly unfamiliar features though,
faint reddish clouds of glowing
ionized hydrogen gas in the same wide field of view.
Most of the ionized hydrogen clouds surely
lie in the foreground of the scene, well within our
Milky Way Galaxy.
They are likely associated with the pervasive, dusty
interstellar cirrus
clouds scattered hundreds of
light-years above our own
galactic plane.
Some of the clouds, however, occur right in the
Andromeda galaxy itself, and some in
M110,
the small galaxy just below.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: M 31 - Andromeda galaxy
Publications with words: M 31 - Andromeda galaxy
See also:
- Hubble s Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic
- NGC 206 and the Star Clouds of Andromeda
- APOD: 2024 September 8 Á M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
- APOD: 2023 November 13 Á Andromeda over the Alps
- The Once and Future Stars of Andromeda
- APOD: 2023 August 23 Á The Meteor and the Galaxy
- APOD: 2023 March 22 Á M31: The Andromeda Galaxy