In this
view of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) from ESA’s Herschel space observatory, cool lanes of forming stars are revealed in fine detail.
Sensitive to the far-infrared light from cool dust mixed in with gas, Herschel seeks out clouds of gas where stars are born. This image reveals some of the very coldest dust in the galaxy – only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero – colored red in this image.
By comparison, warmer regions such as the densely populated central bulge, home to older stars, take on a blue appearance.
Intricate structure is present throughout the 200,000 light-year-wide galaxy with star-formation zones organized in spiral arms and at least five concentric rings, interspersed with dark gaps where star formation is absent.
Host to several hundred billion stars, this new image of Andromeda clearly shows that many more stars will soon spark into existence.
Credits: ESA/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz.