Hubble's largest panorama ever showcases 200 million stars in the Andromeda galaxy

Hubble's largest panorama shows 200 million stars in Andromeda created over a decade.

: Hubble has captured a vast panoramic view of the Andromeda galaxy using more than 600 overlapping images, representing 200 million stars. This massive photomosaic, stretching across 2.5 billion pixels, took over a decade to create and utilized data from PHAT and PHAST surveys. Astronomers will gain insights into Andromeda's age, element abundance, and past galaxy mergers. The panoramic image is available in various resolutions, enhancing our understanding of galactic phenomena.

Hubble Space Telescope has assembled an extensive panoramic view of the Andromeda galaxy, showcasing about 200 million stars, brighter than the Sun, in an intricate photomosaic. This incredible feat, completed over a decade, required more than 1,000 orbits and consists of more than 600 intricately stitched images spread across 2.5 billion pixels.

The astronomers utilized data from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) and Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury (PHAST) programs. These surveys are critical in investigating Andromeda’s age, heavy-element composition, and stellar mass while understanding its past mergers with other galaxies, indicating a possible collision in its history.

NASA has made multiple sizes of this panoramic view available for download, including a full-size 203 MB image. As Hubble continues to deliver vital scientific information after over three decades in orbit, anticipation rises for its successor, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to provide even higher resolution images by May 2027.