1 of 38
Andromeda Galaxy
Credit: HSC Project/NAOJ
This new portrait of the Andromeda Galaxy, or M31, was taken with the Subaru Telescope's new high-resolution imaging camera, the Hyper-Suprime Cam (HSC). Image released July 31, 2013. [
Read the Full Story]
2 of 38
ESA Herschel Image of Andromeda (M31)
Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz
ESA Herschel space observatory image of Andromeda (M31) using both PACS and SPIRE instruments to observe at infrared wavelengths of 70 mm (blue), 100 mm (green) and 160 mm and 250 mm combined (red). Image released Jan. 28, 2013.
3 of 38
Andromeda Galaxy by Lorenzo Comolli
Lorenzo Comolli took this photo of the Andromeda Galaxy on Nov. 16, 2012 from the Apennine mountain village of Bogli, Italy. He used a TEC 140 telescope and Canon EOS 5D with Baader filter, Gemini G-41 mount to capture the image. The image was released to SPACE.com June 26, 2013.
4 of 38
Star Cloud Andromeda Galaxy Fera
Credit: Bob and Janice Fera
Astrophotographers Bob and Janice Fera took this photo of star cloud NGC 206 in the Andromeda Galaxy on Sept. 17-19, 2012 from Eagle Ridge Observatory in Foresthill, Calif. The Feras used an Officina Stellare RC-360AST 14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope with two-element field flattener to observe the star clouds. An Apogee Alta U16M CCD camera with Astrodon filters was used to capture the photo.
5 of 38
Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: Present Day
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger
This is a nighttime view of the current sky, with the bright belt of our Milky Way. The Andromeda galaxy lies 2.5 million light-years away and looks like a faint spindle, several times the diameter of the full Moon. Image released May 31, 2012.
6 of 38
Starhopping 101: Find the Andromeda Galaxy
Credit: Starry Night Software
Starhopping guide to the Andromeda Galaxy.
7 of 38
Galaxies Bridged by Gas
Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
This artist's impression shows a gas "bridge" between the Andromeda Galaxy, or M31, on the right, and the Triangulum Galaxy, or M33, on the left.
8 of 38
Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way Collision
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), and A. Mellinger
This photo illustration depicts a view of the night sky just before the predicted merger between our Milky Way galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Image released May 31, 2012.
9 of 38
Best UV View Ever of Andromeda Galaxy
Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)
This mosaic of M31 merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard NASA's Swift spacecraft. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high (100 arcminutes by 50 arcminutes).
10 of 38
Andromeda Galaxy's Bright Black Hole
Credit: MPE
A Hubble Space Telescope optical image of our nearest neighbor galaxy, Andromeda (M31), with an inset X-ray image of the active center made with the XMM-Newton observatory. The newly discovered ultraluminous X-ray source is highlighted.
11 of 38
Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy Collision
Credit: James Gitlin
An artist's rendition of the collision between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy. The results, however, may be more atypical than previously expected.
12 of 38
WISE Images of Andromeda, Fornax Galaxies
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
WISE images of our neighboring spiral galaxy, Andromeda (left) and the central region of a nearby cluster of elliptical galaxies, the Fornax cluster (right). Images released February 17, 2010.
13 of 38
Portion of the Andromeda Galaxy
Credit: Zolt Levay, Space Science Telescope Institute
A Hubble Space Telescope image of a small portion of the Andromeda galaxy.
14 of 38
Dwarf Galaxies Around Andromeda Galaxy
Credit: Ibata et al.
This composite shows the alignment of the satellite dwarf galaxies of the Andromeda galaxy, in relation to the view that we see from Earth (the top left panel shows a true color image of the center of the Andromeda galaxy taken with the Canada France Hawaii Telescope). Image released on Jan. 2, 2012.
15 of 38
Andromeda Revealed: New Closeups of Our Galactic Neighbor
Credit: P. Barmby/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA/NASA/JPL-Caltech
The top image in this infrared composite shot from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope highlights the contrast between the galaxy's choppy waves of dust (red) and smooth sea of older stars (blue). The panels below the main image show the galaxy's dust (left) and older stars (right) separately.
16 of 38
Andromeda Galaxy Five Time Bigger Than Thought
Credit: Stellarium Planetarium, GALAX team, NASA, Caltech
Andromeda, as it looks if observed from Seattle, WA at 8 pm PST on Jan. 7, 2007. The discovery of halo stars located far from Andromeda's center suggest our nearest galactic neighbor is much bigger than previously thought.
17 of 38
A Trio of Galaxies
Credit: S. Ozime
The Andromeda galaxy, M31, with satellite galaxies M32 (centre left) and M110 (lower right).
18 of 38
Andromeda, Neighbor Galaxy of the Milky Way
Credit: Robert Gendler
The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way.
19 of 38
Hydrogen Clouds Between the Andromeda Galaxy M31 and Triangulum Galaxy M33
Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
This combined graphic shows a high-resolution image (inset) from the Green Bank Telescope of recently discovered hydrogen clouds between the Andromeda Galaxy M31 (upper right) and Triangulum Galaxy M33 (bottom left). Image released May 8, 2013.
20 of 38
Blue and Red Galaxies Evolution Diagram
Credit: Simon Mutch
The typical blue spiral galaxy (top) continues to form stars actively until it collides with another galaxy. At that point, an active galactic nucleus (AGN) is formed that depletes the galaxy of dust, slowing star formation and changing the color to red. But the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy both seem to be shifting to red on their own (bottom), without a collision to urge them along.
21 of 38
PanSTARRS and Andromeda Galaxy Sweden Heden
Credit: P-M Heden / Clearskies.se / The World at Night
P-M Heden took this image of Comet PanSTARRS and the Andromeda Galaxy from Tänndalen, Sweden. The image was released on April 3, 2013.
22 of 38
The Galaxy Next Door
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hot stars burn brightly in this new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, showing the ultraviolet side of a familiar face. At approximately 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda galaxy, or M31, is our Milky Way's largest galactic neighbor. The entire galaxy spans 260,000 light-years across—a distance so large, it took 11 different image segments stitched together to produce this view of the galaxy next door.
23 of 38
Pan-STARRS and Andromeda
Credit: Victor Rogus
Skywatcher Victor Rogus took this image of the Comet Pan-STARRS and the Andromeda galaxy from Jadwin, Missouri on April 5, 2013.
24 of 38
Comet Pan-STARRS and M31
Credit: Victor Rogus
Skywatcher Victor Rogus took this image of the Comet Pan-STARRS and the Andromeda galaxy from Jadwin, Missouri on April 5, 2013.
25 of 38
Microquasar Location in M31
Credit: Robert Gendler © 2005, used with permission. www.robgendlerastropics.com
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31): Crosshairs show location of microquasar.
26 of 38
Measuring the Drift of the Andromeda Galaxy
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild and R. van der Marel (STScI)
This illustration shows one of the regions in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy where astronomers aimed the Hubble Space Telescope to make precise measurements of the galaxy's lateral motion. As the galaxy drifts through space, the stars will appear to uniformly move against the far-more-distant background galaxies, which remain fixed on the sky. Image released May 31, 2012.
27 of 38
Halo of Andromeda Galaxy Used to Measure Its Drift Across Space
Credit: NASA, ESA, R. van der Marel and T. Brown (STScI), and the Digitized Sky Survey
This composite image shows a region in the halo in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy that astronomers used to precisely measure the galaxy's sideways motion on the sky. Image released May 31, 2012.
28 of 38
Collision Scenario for Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy Encounter
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild and R. van der Marel (STScI)
This illustration shows the inevitable collision between our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy approximately 4 billion years from now. The galaxies are moving toward each other under the inexorable pull of gravity between them. A smaller galaxy, Triangulum, may be part of the smashup. Image released May 31, 2012.
29 of 38
Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger
This series of photo illustrations shows the predicted merger between our Milky Way galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, as it will unfold over the next several billion years. The sequence is inspired by dynamical computer modeling of the inevitable future collision between the two galaxies. Image released May 31, 2012.
30 of 38
The Andromeda Galaxy's Coat of Many Colors
Credit: ESA
The Andromeda Galaxy's Coat of Many Colors
31 of 38
Andromeda Strained
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE
This image from WISE displays the Andromeda galaxy's older stellar population in blue. The disk of the galaxy shows the aftermath of a collision with another galaxy, clear from the warp in the spiral arm at the upper left side.
32 of 38
Collision Created Rings Around Andromeda
Credit: NASA/JPL/P. Barmby (CfA)
Infrared photographs taken with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope revealed a never-before-seen dust ring deep within the Andromeda galaxy. When combined with a previously observed outer ring, the presence of both dust rings suggests that M32 plunged through the disk of Andromeda along Andromeda’s polar axis approximately 210 million years ago.
33 of 38
Andromeda Involved In Ancient Galactic Collision
Credit: Alan McConnachie, Cambridge University
Streams of stars at the edges of the Andromeda galaxy evidence a collision between the Andromeda and a dwarf galaxy that likely took place about 700 million years ago.
34 of 38
Small Galaxy Punches Hole In Andromeda
Credit: NASA/JPL/K. Gordon
Image of Andromeda Galaxy taken in visible light.
35 of 38
Mysterious Stars Surround Andromeda's Black Hole
Credit: © 2002 R. Gendler, Photo by R. Gendler
The Andromeda Galaxy photographed with a 12.5-inch telescope by amateur astronomer Robert Gendler.
36 of 38
Dust in the Wind(ing Spiral Arms)
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
This WISE image shows dust speckling the Andromeda galaxy's spiral arms. The hot dust, heated by newborn stars, outlines the thin arms to the center of the galaxy.
37 of 38
What Makes Supernovas Go Boom
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MPA/ M.Gilfanov & A.Bogdan; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ SSC; Optical: DSS
This composite image of M31 (also known as the Andromeda galaxy) shows X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in gold, optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey in light blue and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in red.
38 of 38
Bizarre Behavior of Two Giant Black Holes Surprises Scientists
Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/Li et al.), Optical (DSS)
The large image here shows an optical view, with the Digitized Sky Survey, of the Andromeda Galaxy, otherwise known as M31. The inset shows Chandra images of a small region in the center of Andromeda. The image on the left shows a sum of Chandra images taken before January 2006 and the image on the right shows a sum of images taken after January 2006. Before 2006, three X-ray sources are clearly visible, including one faint source close to the center of the image. After 2006, a fourth source, called M31*, appears just below and to the right of the central source, produced by material falling onto the supermassive black hole in M31.
