Hum Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 A new portrait of the Milky Way's neighbor, Andromeda, shows our twin galaxy in a whole new light thanks to a new instrument on Japan's Subaru telescope at the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea.The instrument, called the Hyper-Suprime Cam (HSC), provides sharp images of the cosmos across a wide field of view. The new photo demonstrates that the HSC camera makes good on its promise of offering his-resolution views of objects throughout the telescope's large 1.5-degree field of view. "This first image from HSC is truly exciting," Masahiro Takada, chair of the HSC science working group at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan, said in a statement. "We can now start the long-awaited, largest-ever galaxy survey for understanding the evolutionary history and fate of the expanding universe."At only 2.5 million light-years away, Andromeda, also known as M31, is the closest spiral galaxy to Earth, and is thought to be similar to our own galaxy. This bright galaxy is visible as a faint splotch on the sky to the naked eye, and was first written about in 964 A.D. by the Persian astronomer al-Sufi. The Subaru Telescope snapped this new image of Andromeda as part of its process to check out the HSC instrument before it is open for scientific use.Astronomers plan to use the HSC to take a cosmic census of every galaxy across a wide swath of sky, probing in depth to peer back through the cosmic eons. The census will record galaxy shapes for a study on how massive objects bend light through their gravitational pull in a process called gravitational lensing.more Crisp and He's Dead Jim 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerino Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Thats cool :) isnt it amazing how far we can see these days, and I wonder what it looks like now, that image is what Andromeda looked like 2.5 million years ago :) Skin 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buttus Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 wow, talk about making Earth feel really small.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgevella Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Is this the actual image produced by the camera or is it made up from several other types of images, combined and processed to look this natural? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draconian Guppy Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 andromeda you say? :shifty: HighwayGlider 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacer Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 That image really is amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffydemon Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Its beautiful, wonder what type of life forms (if any) live in planets of that galaxy. Tigurinn and Hum 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESC@PE Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Sign if you clicked on the topic thinking that it was for a smart phone of some sort! :shifty: Draconian Guppy 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perochan Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 i better start investing one of those stars... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rohdekill Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Been there. It looks nicer in person. TechAddict and Hum 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Is this the actual image produced by the camera or is it made up from several other types of images, combined and processed to look this natural? It's a real pic taken be a new and very advanced camera attached to the Subaru telescope. Subaru telescope page about the image http://subarutelescope.org/Topics/2013/07/30/index.html High resolution image (6,000x5957) http://subarutelescope.org/Topics/2013/07/30/fig1j.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudtrooper Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Its beautiful, wonder what type of life forms (if any) live in planets of that galaxy. Andromeda has a trillion suns and we figure, what, 2.5 average planets per solar system or so, (which is an underestimation by most accounts) so there is an estimated 2.5 trillion planets.. even if you figure an infintiely small chance of life, the potential for life is staggeringly huge just in that one galaxy alone and we have what, a 200 billion galaxies in the known universe to count that against Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighwayGlider Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 GAH... Way to go bud! Now his gay voice (french version) is stuck into my head. But Phoenix will overcome that. andromeda you say? :shifty: The Evil Overlord 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffydemon Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Andromeda has a trillion suns and we figure, what, 2.5 average planets per solar system or so, (which is an underestimation by most accounts) so there is an estimated 2.5 trillion planets.. even if you figure an infintiely small chance of life, the potential for life is staggeringly huge just in that one galaxy alone and we have what, a 200 billion galaxies in the known universe to count that against what makes me sad, i wont be alive to shake hands with other life forms or live as a bounty hunter on other planets, that future is still too far :cry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted August 3, 2013 Author Share Posted August 3, 2013 Been there. It looks nicer in person. You too ? :shifty: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted August 3, 2013 Member Share Posted August 3, 2013 Great picture. I wish I could go see it in person. Sigh. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted August 4, 2013 Author Share Posted August 4, 2013 ^ Maybe the galaxy was sucked up in to a black hole, a million years ago. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 There is a huge supermassive black hole at Andromeda's core, but its influence beyond the core itself is minimal - just like with the one at the core of the Milky Way. Most of their long distance influence occurs when the galaxy is formed and shottly after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerxes Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 and to think, in about ~4 billion years we (as in the Milky Way) will crash into that. The universe is a beautiful and dangerous place. EDIT: For those who think I'm making this up... Astronomers Predict Titanic Collision: Milky Way vs. Andromeda (source: NASA) Evidence this might of happened before... Andromeda may have collided with Milky Way 10 billion years ago (source: ExtremeTech) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 What NASA thinks the Andromeda / Milky Way collision will look like from Earth. Remember that we are in the outskirts of the Milky Way giving us a ringside seat. A collision of the central regions would resilt in star / neutron star / black hole collisions in areas of high density, star formation where gas clouds collide, an increase in supernovae and black holes gobbling up anything that comes near, etc. A real freakin' fireworks show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StandingInAlley Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Thats cool :) isnt it amazing how far we can see these days, and I wonder what it looks like now, that image is what Andromeda looked like 2.5 million years ago :) 2.5 million light-years denotes distance and not time :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerino Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 light years are measure by the distance that the speed of light per year so since andromeda is 2.5 million light years away we are seeing the light that the galaxy showed off 2.5 millions years ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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