images

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) - Detail

by

ESA/NASA/Novapix

Reference

a-gax02-24043

Date

2015-02-02

M31, the Great galaxy in Andromeda, is a gigantic collection of more than 300 billion stars and is located about 2 million light years from Earth. This image, captured with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the largest and sharpest image ever taken of the Andromeda galaxy — otherwise known as M31.
It is the biggest Hubble image ever released and shows over 100 million stars and thousands of star clusters embedded in a section of the galaxy’s pancake-shaped disc stretching across over 40 000 light-years.