Hubble image archive
Our Neighboring Galaxy's Unusual Core
The images and illustration reveal that the Andromeda Galaxy's (M31's) core is composed of a ring of old, red stars and a newly discovered disk of young, blue stars. The disk is trapped within a supermassive black hole's gravitational field. The mass of Andromeda's monster black...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2005
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2005-26-1746-image
The images and illustration reveal that the Andromeda Galaxy's (M31's) core is composed of a ring of old, red stars and a newly discovered disk of young, blue stars. The disk is trapped within a supermassive black hole's gravitational field. The mass of Andromeda's monster black hole is 140 million times greater than that of our Sun.
The illustration at bottom, right shows the structure of Andromeda's unusual core and is based on Hubble images of the region. The disk of blue stars is nested inside the larger ring of red stars. The tiny black dot within the blue disk is the monster black hole.
Astronomers deduced the structure of Andromeda's core from Hubble images taken over the past decade. The image at upper, right, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, shows that the galaxy appears to have two cores. Normal galaxies only have one core. Astronomers now believe
that Andromeda has one core. The two bright blobs are actually the ring of red stars and the disk of blue stars. In fact, the bright blob on the right has a bluish cast.
The image at left is a view of the entire Andromeda Galaxy. The active core is in the center of the galaxy. Andromeda is 2.5 million light-years from Earth.
Credits
Photo at left: ©2002, R. Gendler, Photo by Robert Gendler;Upper right: NASA, ESA and T. Lauer (NOAO/AURA/NSF);
Lower right illustration: NASA, ESA and A. Feild (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | M31, Andromeda Galaxy, NGC 224 |
| Object Description | Spiral Galaxy, Galaxy Core |
| R.A. Position | 00h 42m 44.3s |
| Dec. Position | 41° 16' 9.4" |
| Constellation | Andromeda |
| Distance | About 2.5 million light-years (0.8 Megaparsecs) |
| Dimensions | The WFPC2 image of M31's nucleus is 11.6 arcminutes (150 light-years or 46.5 parsecs) across. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The WFPC2 science data are from the HST proposal : J. Westphal (Caltech), T.R. Lauer (NOAO/AURA/NSF), S. M. FABER UCO/Lick Observatory, W. Baum (Univ. of Washington) The STIS science data are from the HST proposal 8018: R. Green (NOAO/KPNO) and G. Bower (NOAO). The science team includes: R. Bender (Univ. of Sternwarte, Munich; Max Planck Inst., Garching; Univ. of Texas at Austin), J. Kormendy (Univ. of Texas at Austin), G. Bower (CSC/STScI), R. Green (NOAO), J. Thomas (Univ. of Sternwarte, Munich; Max Planck Inst., Garching), A.C. Danks (Bowie, MD), T. Gull (NASA/GSFC), J.B. Hutchings (NRC of Canada), C.L. Joseph (Rutgers Univ.), M.E. Kaiser (JHU), T.R. Lauer (NOAO/AURA/NSF), C.H. Nelson (UNLV), D. Richstone (Univ. of Michigan), D. Weistrop (UNLV), and B. Woodgate (NASA/GSFC). |
| Instrument | 12.5-inch Richey-Chrétien telescope (left), and HST>WFPC2 and HST>STIS (HST data, top right) |
| Exposure Dates | 2002 (left), and June 18-20, 1995, Exposure Time: 3.7 hours (WFPC2) and July 23-24, 1999, Exposure Time: 6.3 hours (STIS) |
| Filters | HST Data WFPC2: F160BW, F300W (U), F555W (V), F814W (I) STIS: G430L, G750M |
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Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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