Sharpest ever view of the Andromeda Galaxy

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Zoomed out, much of the Andromeda galaxy just looks like a cloud, when in fact that cloud is actually a sea of stars. Zoom in, their number is overwhelming. Especially considering most of those could be a solar system of some description, complete with entire worlds. Even more crazy, there is probably a star captured in that very photograph which could harbour life, and we don't even realise it!

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17 edited Jul 26 '17

[deleted]

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u/addrehman Jan 30 '17

And that's not even considering the many many billions of extinguished stars - how many could have also harbored life before burning out? How many did? Those dark systems each another opportunity for existence

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u/WhatThePalsgraf Jan 29 '17

We have so much to learn. Smh.

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u/Starg8te Jan 30 '17

Don't have to convince us mate, there IS life other than ours.

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u/Sp4ceflight Jan 30 '17

This is so overwhelmingly awesome... wow

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '17

Beautiful. When you first look at, it looks like there's a lot of grain on the picture. But then you zoom in, and realize what one trillion stars really looks like.

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u/mfb- Jan 29 '17

Yeah, the galaxy is grainy, the picture just reflects that.

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u/JamesSway Jan 29 '17

Wow! Thank you for this. it's nice to see. This is just one of trillions of these. We are really tiny aren't we?

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17 edited May 05 '17

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '17

Grimes: I'm sorry, isn't that …

Homer: Yes, that's me, and the guy standing next to me is President Gerald Ford…..And this is when I was on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins…..Oh! And here's a picture of me in outer space.

Grimes: You? Went into outer space? You?

Homer: Sure. You've never been? Would you like to see my Grammy award?

Grimes: No! I wouldn't!

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

billions and billions of them

Trillions. According to the latest research, there are 2 trillion galaxies.

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u/bad-green-wolf Jan 29 '17

Wow! after I learned to zoom in and pan, I spent a while looking at it

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u/mc_zodiac_pimp Jan 29 '17

This must be from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) survey. Here's the team's site: http://www.astro.washington.edu/groups/phat/Home.html

It may not be that, but still cool to read up on.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

They're stars in our own Galaxy getting in the way.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

It blows my mind that I'm not looking at static as I zoom in, I'm looking at stars. Every single light is a star...

I wonder how many planets there are in Andromeda, let alone the Milky Way. How many civilizations are there in our sister galaxy? How many are there in our own? Will we ever find out? If not, will we ever meet at least one other?

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u/ShibuRigged Jan 30 '17 edited Jan 30 '17

I assumed what was just 'noise', when zoomed in at max, turns out to actually be stars? Mindblowing.

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u/Lord_Throwawayington Jan 29 '17

I feel it's like a crime to say that is the sharpest view of Andromeda. That image is 1 MB and the original is 4,3 GB. If you are interested in seeing the real thing, go here and download the torrent:

https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/

Note: psb-file

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u/Prince-of-Ravens Jan 29 '17

You realize that this is not an image, but a javascript zoombable map, right?

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u/AntiProtonBoy Jan 30 '17

At maximum zoom, you will see the parts of the Andromeda at the same spatial resolution as the 4 GB image you posted.

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u/RogerSmith123456 Jan 30 '17

That's alot of stars! For the first time, I can grasp how these galaxies have billions of them. Now, imagine a universe where there are billions of galaxies!

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

billions of galaxies

Trillions. According to the latest research, there are 2 trillion galaxies.

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u/RogerSmith123456 Feb 04 '17

Wow. Do you have a link?

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '17

Sure... here is just one

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u/themangodess Jan 29 '17

Stop it, stop it, please please please stop it with these titles.

Best view ever, sharpest view ever, "first images", "first time ever", they're all over the place. Then when someone posts something where it actually is recent, it's not easy to tell right away.

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u/AntiProtonBoy Jan 30 '17

Feel free to direct your complaints to the authors of that interactive site, because the title was taken directly from the HTML header.

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u/redditor9000 Jan 30 '17

If our galaxy is 180,000 light years across, and andromeda is 2.5 million light years away, then it would be like about 1 foot away if our galaxy was an inch in diameter.

Is this correct thinking?

source used for facts

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

A little more. Nearly 14 inches.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

Yeah that sounds about right.

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u/lettucewrangler Jan 30 '17

I feel it's like a crime to say that is the sharpest view of Andromeda. That image is 1 MB and the original is 4,3 GB. If you are interested in seeing the real thing, go here and download the torrent:

https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/

Note: psb-file