Hubble Captures Largest-Ever Photomosaic of Andromeda Galaxy

The 2.5-gigapixel image reveals 200 million stars and offers unprecedented insights into Andromeda's turbulent history and structure.

• NASA's Hubble Space Telescope created a 2.5-billion-pixel photomosaic of the Andromeda galaxy after over a decade of observations and 1,000 orbits.
• The mosaic resolves 200 million individual stars, though the galaxy's total star population is estimated to be around 1 trillion.
• Andromeda's evolutionary history differs significantly from the Milky Way, showing evidence of past galactic mergers and younger star populations.
• Key regions of interest include star clusters, dark dust lanes, and the satellite galaxy Messier 32, believed to be a remnant of a past collision.
• The findings will inform future studies using advanced telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

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