What can you learn from looking into the depths of space? In an effort to find out true ages of stars in neighboring Andromeda galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]'s halo [ http://csep10.phys.…], astronomers stared into the galaxy giant [ http://www.seds.org…] with the new Advanced Camera for Surveys [ http://acs.pha.jhu.…] through the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://www.stsci.ed…]. The resulting exposure [ http://www.astronom…] of over three days, shown above [ http://hubblesite.o…], is the deepest exposure in visible light ever taken, although shorter in duration than the multi-wavelength effort toward the Hubble Deep Field [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. The final image illuminated not only Andromeda [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] (M31) but the distant universe. Andromeda's halo stars [ http://skyandtelesc…] turned out to be have a wider range of ages than our Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]'s halo stars, likely indicating more encounters with small neighboring galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Visible on the above [ http://hubblesite.o…] left is one of Andromeda's globular star clusters [ http://www.seds.org…], while literally thousands of background galaxies are seen in the distance universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], far beyond M31.
Explanation
What can you learn from looking into the depths of space? In an effort to find out true ages of stars in neighboring Andromeda galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]'s halo [ http://csep10.phys.…], astronomers stared into the galaxy giant [ http://www.seds.org…] with the new Advanced Camera for Surveys [ http://acs.pha.jhu.…] through the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://www.stsci.ed…]. The resulting exposure [ http://www.astronom…] of over three days, shown above [ http://hubblesite.o…], is the deepest exposure in visible light ever taken, although shorter in duration than the multi-wavelength effort toward the Hubble Deep Field [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. The final image illuminated not only Andromeda [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] (M31) but the distant universe. Andromeda's halo stars [ http://skyandtelesc…] turned out to be have a wider range of ages than our Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]'s halo stars, likely indicating more encounters with small neighboring galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Visible on the above [ http://hubblesite.o…] left is one of Andromeda's globular star clusters [ http://www.seds.org…], while literally thousands of background galaxies are seen in the distance universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], far beyond M31.
