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January 2016 - A Ninth Planet? Not Pluto!

Report #11 - December 2015

The Milky Way's Copycat  

 

Being so similar to our own, SC Messier discusses the Adromeda Galaxy, known as M31 on Charles Messier's catalog. With its spiral figure, Andromeda compares to be the most similar galaxy to the Milky Way. 

The Adromeda Galaxy 

Adromeda's Surprises

So, if the Adromeda Galaxy is so much like the Milky Way, then surely there must be life within those clusters of stars. Well, hold up a minute. Such a theory is a little too extreme. Thanks to NASA's Swift satellite, 330 individual images of Andromeda were taken in ultraviolet light between May 25 and July 26, 2008. With these images, scientists were able to uncover "dense clusters of hot, young stars." In addition to these clusters of stars, an enormous ring (about 150,000 miles across and located within the Adromeda Galaxy) was discovered and is believed to house a healthy amount of these young stars. We can think of this ring as an outing for these young stars, or prom night in which all the young stars -or teenagers- gather around a center place of attraction to have a memorable time dancing with their friends. 

Such a detailed ultraviolet mosaic would not have been possible without NASA's Swift satellite.

vs.

Swift's ultraviolet mosaic of all 330 mages of Adromeda

This image was taken from a ground-based telescope in visible light. 

What's more of Adromeda is its distinct disk and spiral arms that contain plenty of gas of dust; the necessary ingredients for forming new stars. Andromeda-gone-ultraviolet has enabled scientists to better understand and study Adromeda's star-formation processes. It's always a two-in-one bonus when we obtain extra knowledge about stars while learning more about our Milky Way's "twin" that is about 2.5 million light-years away. 

If you're interested...

Want to learn more about Swift and its ultraviolet images of the Adromeda Galaxy? Click on the video below to do just that. 

""NASA | Take a "Swift" Tour of the Adromeda Galaxy" Youtube video

SOURCES:

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
M31 ultraviolet image courtesy of NASA/GSFC/Swift/Stefan Immler and UMCP/Erin Grand
M31 optical image courtesy of NSF/AURA/NOAO/REU program/B. Schoening and V. Harvey

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=11675

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140730.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWxBTHVhc3I

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