A Journey Into Andromeda

Andromeda galaxy–also called M31 by astronomers–is the largest galaxy in the Local Group, the group of galaxies that our Milky Way galaxy also belongs to. The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Multi-cycle program to map roughly a third of M31’s star forming disk, using 6 filters covering from the ultraviolet through the near infrared. With HST’s resolution and sensitivity, the disk of M31 will be resolved into more than 100 million stars, enabling a wide range of scientific endeavors. This movie starts with a 1.5 x 3.0 kiloparsec (KPC) view of part of Andromeda's major star forming ring. The field contains millions of stars, mottled by filaments of dust, which dim and redden the background stars. As the movie begins, it zooms into the region, revealing a rich mix of old red stars and young blue stars, along with occasional background galaxies and emission line nebulosity. As the movie pans across, it moves into regions of intense star formation, traced by thousands of bright blue stars. Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope