
Hubble captures the sharpest ever view of Andromeda Galaxy - gokhan
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1502/
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npongratz
_In fact [Andromeda 's] full diameter on the night sky is six times that of
the full Moon._

I was surprised to read this. I remember gazing at Andromeda and the full moon
many years ago as an amateur astronomer, but didn't have a sense of apparent
size of the two.

Anyway, I dug into NASA's archives [0] which included an image showing
perspective. Thought it was pretty neat, so here you go:

[http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2015-02-e-compa...](http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2015-02-e-compass_large_web.jpg)

[0]
[http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/02/fa...](http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/02/fastfacts/)

~~~
aidos
Awesome.

I was lucky enough to see Andromeda with the naked eye while doing a
transatlantic yacht race. Believe it or not it took me a couple of days to
find Pegasus but then it was obvious each night as I gazed up at the sky.

We're on a collision course with Andromeda, right? Those trillion stars
crashing in are going to make for a wonderful fireworks display :)

~~~
sanoli
The thing is, stars are so far apart from each other that there won't be any
collisions. From wikipedia: "While the Andromeda Galaxy contains about 1
trillion (1012) stars and the Milky Way contains about 300 billion (3×1011),
the chance of even two stars colliding is negligible because of the huge
distances between the stars."

link:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision)

~~~
astrobiased
You're correct, the likelihood of stars colliding is near zero, but the gas
that forms stars in both galaxies will collide and _that_ will create quite a
spectacular view. It will likely resemble something like this:
[http://hugepic.io/bfc195a2b/4.00/2.02/-77.61](http://hugepic.io/bfc195a2b/4.00/2.02/-77.61)

~~~
BIair
Space is full of a LOT of empty space. Maybe even more amazing to myself, is
the scale works almost the same in inverse. There's also a lot of space at the
tiniest scales.

Scale of our solar system:
[http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.h...](http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html)

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TrainedMonkey
" To capture the large portion of the galaxy seen here — over 40 000 light-
years across — Hubble took 411 images which have been assembled into a mosaic
image."

"The image featured here has 69 536 x 22 230 pixels and is a cropped version
of the full uncropped image which has 3.9 billion pixels and covers a length
of almost 60 000 light years."

Here is a link from the article that would help appreciate how detailed full
resolutions is:
[http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/zoomable/](http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/zoomable/)

I was blown away in particular by sheer luminescence difference between
galactic core and edge of the galaxy. Imagine the brightness of night sky in
galactic core. That reminded me of the paper that estimated number of GRB's
that would hit a planet based on where it was located - galactic core is not a
hospitable place.

~~~
Springtime
After being stunned by the close-up of the stars I'm tempted to download the
4.3GB original [1]. The scale was unexpected having mostly seen only resized
photos before.

[1]
[http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/origina...](http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/original/heic1502a.psb)

~~~
SSLy
What program can open such file?

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ChrisGranger
That's a Photoshop Big file, which can be opened with Photoshop, obviously,
provided your computer has sufficient RAM.

~~~
SSLy
So I guess it won't be of much use with my linux box...

~~~
linguaz
If the psb format can be converted to ppm format (via ImageMagick?), and image
size is the issue, maybe NASA's BigView could be an option:

 _BigView allows for interactive panning and zooming of images of arbitrary
size on desktop PCs running linux. Additionally, it can work in a multi-screen
environment where multiple PCs cooperate to view a single large image. Using
this software, one can explore -- on relatively modest machines -- images such
as the Mars Orbiter Camera mosaic [92160x33280 pixels]._

[http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/opensource/projects/bigview/](http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/opensource/projects/bigview/)

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rsiqueira
In case you don´t know, Andromeda is approaching the Milky Way at about 110 km
per second and will collide with our galaxy. See NASA collision animation and
also the amazing illustration of how big we'll see Andromeda Galaxy (in 3.75
billion years):
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_col...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision)

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Rooster61
For those unfamiliar with astrophotography, there are a few neat things to
note about this image. Most of the larger points of light that have what looks
like a cross going through them are actually stars in our own galaxy between
the Earth and Andromeda.

The crosses, or spokes, through each of the stars is caused by the struts
holding Hubble's secondary mirror in place above the primary mirror. Every
poinpoint of light in this picture actually has these spokes, but they are
only really visible on the biggest, brightest spots.

This is also visible in Hubble's Deep Field photos as there are numerous local
stars in the foreground.

The reddish, fuzzy, oblong objects that are a bit bigger are other galaxies
far past Andromeda. Most appear red because of a side effect on light
traversing such a long distance before reaching us called redshift.

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CamperBob2
Just incredible. The moment when you realize that what you thought was CCD
noise is _stars_...

~~~
candl
So true :). Here's an equally amazing zoomable picture of the Milky Way:
[http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1242a/zoomable/](http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1242a/zoomable/)

~~~
TeMPOraL
Zoomed to max and my mind was blown. What immediately came to my head was:
imagine if each of those shiny points in this cloud is an atom. Our whole
civilization is nothing more than a surface irregularity on one of "electrons"
orbiting one of those dots. Both drives home the sense of scale, and lets one
marvel at the recursivity of patterns at different scales in the universe.

~~~
mikeash
This stuff gives me an unreasonable fear of getting lost. If you had some
magical hyperdrive ship and bumped the controls with your elbow at the wrong
moment, you'd never find your way back home.

~~~
lmm
Just take a pulsar map, like the one on the voyager golden records.

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kylek
Can't wait to see what the James Webb Telescope[0] will show us after it goes
up in late 2018.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope)

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bwang29
Are the "background noise" of the images also stars? It's the first time I
realize the darker parts of the universe, while zoomed in, looks disturbingly
noisy and bright.

~~~
TrainedMonkey
From article: "The whole galaxy contains over one thousand billion stars." so
presumably yes.

I would even say that we are only seeing brightest stars and clusters of
stars.

~~~
CamperBob2
And quite a few of the 'stars' are galaxies themselves. Lots of red-shifted
spirals.

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jkot
I got similar large image printed and hang in my living room. It is milky-way
panorama, poster has 2x5 meters, 100Kx300K pixes, pretty nice. One can see
every tiny nebula.

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dshankar
I believe this image now has the world record for largest image of Andromeda
Galaxy/M31

Previously, this was 310 million pixels
([http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M31NMmosaic.html](http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M31NMmosaic.html))

The Hubble photo is 3.9 billion pixels.

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peterwwillis
"Oh, cool! I can split this into images and print out a full color wall mural
of Andromeda!"

 _looks at prices of poster printing_

Professional printed glossy full bleed posters: $30ea (x25=$750). Ouch. Wall
mural printing services don't seem to list custom pricing, but I assume it's
less. A cheaper alternative is KISS Printing, which at $0.15 per 12.5"x18.5"
printable area would be around 10x10, so about $15.... but you also choose how
much profit they make, so figure at least $30 profit, since half goes to a
charity... $45 is very affordable, though not as nice prints

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frownie
I've looked at the zommable picture. When I zoomed to the maximum, I saw a lot
of noise in the picture (and a arather regular one). Does it mean that
although the resolution is pretty impressive, the noise make it less "useful"
? Just asking, I've 0 knowledge in this area.

Second question, just out of curiosity, would it be possible to look at closer
objects like Mars or the moon ? We'd have a pretty good image too ?

~~~
Betelgeuse90
About the Mars question, consider the fact that the Andromeda galaxy, although
faint in the sky, takes up 5 times more room in our night sky than the moon
does. It's really huge.

Mars in comparison is minuscule in our night sky. It's just a tiny blob of
light.

~~~
andyjohnson0
_"..the Andromeda galaxy, although faint in the sky, takes up 5 times more
room in our night sky than the moon does."_

Correct, although wikipedia says 6 times and adds a clarification:

 _" Although it appears more than six times as wide as the full Moon when
photographed through a larger telescope, only the brighter central region is
visible to the naked eye or when viewed using binoculars or a small
telescope."_ [1]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy)

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Ragnarork
This picture is awesome. Looking at it, I get a deep feeling of loneliness and
complete loss in this gigantic space.

As someone already said, "We can't be alone in here..."

Also, this is a nice reminder of the quality of engineering that went into
Hubble. This satellite is truly an incredible piece of work for being relevant
and useful so much time after its supposed "expiration date"! :)

~~~
gagege
Looking at pictures like this I get the same feeling as when I'm swimming in
very deep water, loneliness and chills.

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ChuckMcM
That is an awesome picture. The JWST should have "Galaxies in the Mirror are
Closer than they Appear" somewhere on its primary mirror :-).

It is fortunate that the jets coming off the galactic black hole in the middle
of Andromeda aren't pointed our way, that would have made short work of life
on Earth.

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ChrisGranger
What a fantastic image. Just imagine being able to map the entire sky dome
with this level of detail...

~~~
sheensleeves
The funny thing, is that to the naked human eye, being in a nebula would look
like you are in a big ball of brown dust.

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razster
For those wanting to download the larger versions:
[http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/02/im...](http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/02/image/a/warn/)

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AnimalMuppet
About 1/16th of the way out from the center, there's a yellow arc. (It's most
visible on the zoom tool.) What is it?

~~~
ChrisGranger
As you zoom in on that area more and more, the yellow arc seems to go away, so
I'm guessing it's some kind of image compression artifact and it's just dust
lanes like elsewhere in the galaxy.

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rbanffy
In a couple billion years we'll be able to see it in much more detail ;-)

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sankha93
502 Bad Gateway. :(

~~~
scroy
I had to give it a couple tries, but it loaded

