2.5-Billion-Pixel Andromeda Galaxy Panorama Worth The Decade Of Hubble Observations

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has just completed a decade-long observation campaign, obtaining the most detailed glimpses into this galaxy ever recorded.

The galaxy is so massive that 600 separate fields of view were needed in an extraordinary composite picture comprising 2.5 billion pixels to capture it. Hubble was able to distinguish approximately 200 million stars, all of which are cooler than our sun. A significant number, but still a very small portion of the galaxy's total stellar population. Andromeda is estimated to have 1 trillion stars. Even this glimpse of the galaxy conveys a lot of information about it.

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Hubble discovered evidence that a massive collision occurred in the Milky Way by highlighting a large population of stars and coherent streams of stars characteristic of such a collision.

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Andromeda is a train wreck - it looks like it's been through a disaster that created a lot of stars but then suddenly stopped," said Daniel Weisz of the University of California, Berkeley. "This likely happened because it collided with another nearby galaxy.

It is possible that the small satellite galaxy of the Andromeda galaxy known as Messier 32 acquired and consumed, or rather influenced the gas within, its nearby smaller companion to build a large number of new stars.

Andromeda appears to be a transitional type of galaxy that falls between a spiral galaxy with actively forming stars and an elliptical galaxy dominated by older, red stars," said Weisz. "It contains a prominent central cluster of older stars and a star-forming disk that's not as dynamic as one would expect given its mass.

"This detailed examination of the resolved stars will help us reconstruct the galaxy's past merger and interaction history," said Williams.

The scrolling will definitely be worth your time.

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