This new image of the Andromeda galaxy is said to be the most sensitive and comprehensive ever made in ultraviolet light
This new image of the Andromeda galaxy is said to be the most sensitive and
comprehensive ever made in ultraviolet light. It was captured by NASA’s new
Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).
Andromeda is our nearest large galactic neighbor. It is similar to the Milky
Way, spiral in nature and with a massive black hole at its center. The two galaxies
are in fact destined
to collide.
"Because people are accustomed to seeing objects in visible light, it’s amazing to see how different the universe looks in ultraviolet and how much information is revealed to us by those observations," Kerry Erickson, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Scientists expect the image, released last week, and other data collected by
the GALEX to help them learn more about star formation.
The observatory launched on April 28. Its goal is
to map the celestial sky in the ultraviolet and determine the history of star
formation in the universe over the last 10 billion years. [Another
GALEX image]
Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech
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