The most complete image of the Andromeda galaxy to date is presented: astronomers have been working on it for 10 years

Astronomers have presented the most complete image of the Andromeda Galaxy that exists today. The painstaking work on compiling the photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope lasted more than 10 years.

The result of many years of work is a stunning panoramic view of Andromeda that provides the most detailed portrait of the galaxy. The scientific functions of the image can dramatically change human understanding of how spiral galaxies form and evolve in the universe, Space.com writes.

In 2015, astronomers began the painstaking task of stitching together photos of the northern half of our neighboring galaxy Andromeda taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The resulting work showed a wide image of 100 million stars packed into about 1.5 billion pixels.

University of Washington researcher Zhuo Chen reported that she and her colleagues have just completed similar work for the southern half of Andromeda, adding nearly 100 million stars to the previous mosaic.

Together, the two halves capture the radiance of nearly 200 million stars in this galaxy, the largest portrait assembled from Hubble observations, scientists say.

"It's like taking a picture of a beach and separating the individual grains of sand. This is the first time we can see such detailed structures of the outer galaxy," Chen said.

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!