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Astronomers have unveiled Hubble's largest photomosaic…

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…a stunning image of the Andromeda galaxy,
our neighbor 2.5 million light-years away.

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Over the course of a decade, scientists compiled
more than 600 individual snapshots to create this portrait.

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Why such an ambitious project?

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Andromeda is so close to us that its apparent size in the sky
is six times the width of the full Moon.

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For Hubble’s incredibly focused view, that meant
capturing a vast area of space in meticulous detail.

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The mosaic reveals the brilliance of 200 million stars,
just a fraction of the galaxy's total population.

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The 2.5-billion-pixel image lets astronomers
study individual stars and uncover Andromeda’s
history of collisions and mergers.

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Andromeda, or M31, is the largest galaxy in our local group,
spanning 220,000 light-years in a spiral shape similar to the Milky Way.

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Currently hurtling toward us, it will merge with the Milky Way in about 4.5 billion years.

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This cosmic event will reshape the skies, but for now,
Andromeda offers a stunning glimpse into the complexity
and beauty of galaxies beyond our own.

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