Hubble’s biggest image yet, of Andromeda
Click for original image.
The image above, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shows the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way’s nearest spiral galaxy neighbor. The picture however is not one photo, but hundreds taken over the past decade.
This is largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope observations. It is a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million light-years away. It took over 10 years to make this vast and colorful portrait of the galaxy, requiring over 600 Hubble overlapping snapshots that were challenging to stitch together. The galaxy is so close to us, that in angular size it is six times the apparent diameter of the full Moon, and can be seen with the unaided eye.
Andromeda is not just visible to the naked eye, it is one of the largest objects seen in the sky. If you ever can get to a really dark sky location when it is above and have someone point it out to you (it remains faint), you will be astonished to find that it stretches across the sky the length of about six to eight full moons.
Thus, Hubble literally can’t take a picture of it. Its field of view is much too small. It must take many pictures to assemble a mosaic.
The picture above also hides the data contained in all those images. At the full resolution of each individual picture, Hubble has literally mapped the entire galaxy. Combined with other spectroscopic survey data taken by Hubble, astronomers over time will be able to decipher the galaxy’s makeup to better understand its formation history.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
The image above, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shows the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way’s nearest spiral galaxy neighbor. The picture however is not one photo, but hundreds taken over the past decade.
This is largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope observations. It is a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million light-years away. It took over 10 years to make this vast and colorful portrait of the galaxy, requiring over 600 Hubble overlapping snapshots that were challenging to stitch together. The galaxy is so close to us, that in angular size it is six times the apparent diameter of the full Moon, and can be seen with the unaided eye.
Andromeda is not just visible to the naked eye, it is one of the largest objects seen in the sky. If you ever can get to a really dark sky location when it is above and have someone point it out to you (it remains faint), you will be astonished to find that it stretches across the sky the length of about six to eight full moons.
Thus, Hubble literally can’t take a picture of it. Its field of view is much too small. It must take many pictures to assemble a mosaic.
The picture above also hides the data contained in all those images. At the full resolution of each individual picture, Hubble has literally mapped the entire galaxy. Combined with other spectroscopic survey data taken by Hubble, astronomers over time will be able to decipher the galaxy’s makeup to better understand its formation history.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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