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Credit & Copyright: NASA,
ESA,
J. Dalcanton, B. F. Williams, L. C. Johnson
(U. Washington),
PHAT team,
R. Gendler
Explanation:
What stars compose the Andromeda galaxy?
To better understand, a
group of researchers
studied the
nearby spiral
by composing the largest image ever taken with the
Hubble Space Telescope.
The result, called the
Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT), involved thousands of observations,
hundreds of fields,
spanned about a third of the galaxy, and resolved over 100 million stars.
In the featured composite image, the
central part of the galaxy is seen on the far left,
while a blue spiral arm is prominent on the right.
The brightest stars, scattered over the frame, are actually
Milky Way foreground
stars.
The PHAT data is being analyzed
to
better understand
where and how stars have formed in
M31 in contrast to our
Milky Way Galaxy,
and to identify and characterize Andromeda's
stellar clusters and
obscuring dust.
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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: star formation - stars
Publications with words: star formation - stars
See also: