Fact Sheet
Starry Neighbor
A new view of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) shows streamers of older stars (blue) and rings ablaze with young stars (yellow and red). The false-color image was produced by the new Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is surveying the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, which are invisible to the human eye. Andromeda is the nearest large galaxy to our own, at a distance of about 2.5 million light-years. It is visible to the unaided eye during fall and winter as a small, faint smudge of light. [NASA/JPL/UCLA]
|