June 5th 06, 10:13 PM
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
David Aguilar 617-495-7462
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
IMAGE ADVISORY: 2006-082 June 5, 2006
Andromeda Adrift in Sea of Dust in New NASA Image
The Andromeda galaxy, named for the mythological princess who
almost fell prey to a sea monster, appears tranquil in a new
image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The mesmerizing
infrared mosaic shows red waves of dust over a blue sea of
stars.
"What's really interesting about this view is the contrast
between the galaxy's smooth, flat disk of old stars and its
bumpy waves of dust heated by young stars," said Dr. Pauline
Barmby of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
Cambridge, Mass. Barmby and her colleagues recently observed
Andromeda using Spitzer.
To view the picture, visit
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-14/ .
Barmby and her team used the Spitzer data to make drastically
improved measurements of Andromeda's infrared brightness.
They found that the galaxy shines with the same amount of
energy as about 4 billion suns. Based on these measurements,
the astronomers confirmed that there are roughly 1 trillion
stars in the galaxy. Our Milky Way galaxy is estimated to
house a couple of hundred billion stars.
"This is the first time the stellar population of Andromeda
has been determined using the galaxy's infrared brightness,"
said Barmby. "It's reassuring to know our numbers are in
agreement with previous estimates of the mass of the stars
based on the stars' motion."
The new false-colored portrait also provides astronomers
with the best look yet at the dust-drenched spiral arms that
swirl out of the galaxy's center, a region hidden by bright
starlight in visible-light images. Dust and gas are the
building materials of stars. They are clumped together
throughout the spiral arms, where new stars are forming.
"The Spitzer data trace with startling clarity the star-
forming material all the way into the inner part of the
galaxy," said Dr. George Helou, deputy director of NASA's
Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena. "The challenge is to understand
what shapes the distribution of this gas and dust, and
what modulates the star formation at different locations."
Spitzer's infrared array camera captured infrared light
emanating from both older stars (blue) and dust made up of
molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (red).
These carbon-containing molecules are warmed by sunlight
and glow at infrared wavelengths. They are often associated
with dense clouds of new stars, and can be found on Earth
in barbecue pits and car exhaust, among other places.
The Andromeda galaxy, also known by astronomers as Messier
31, is located 2.5 million light-years away in the
constellation Andromeda. It is the closest major galaxy
to the Milky Way, making it the ideal specimen for
carefully examining the nature of galaxies. On a clear, dark
night, the galaxy can be spotted with the naked eye as a
fuzzy blob.
Andromeda spans about 260,000 light-years, which means that
a light beam would take 260,000 years to travel from one
end of the galaxy to the other. By comparison, the Milky
Way is about 100,000 light-years across. When viewed from
Earth, Andromeda occupies a portion of the sky equivalent
to seven full moons.
Spitzer's wide field of view allowed the telescope to
capture a complete snapshot of the Andromeda galaxy,
though the task wasn't easy. The final mosaic consists of
3,000 or so individual picture frames stitched together
seamlessly.
Barmby presented these observations today at the 208th
meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Calgary,
Canada. A previous image of Andromeda taken with
Spitzer's longer-wavelength infrared camera can be found at
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2005-20/ssc2005-20a.shtml
For more information about Spitzer, visit
www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer .
Other members of Barmby's team include: Drs. Steven
Willner, Matthew Ashby, John Huchra and Michael Pahre of
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Drs.
Luciana Bianchi and David Thilker of The Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, Md.; Drs. Charles Engelbracht,
Karl Gordon, Joannah Hinz, Pablo P?rez-Gonz?lez
and George Rieke of the University of Arizona, Tucson; and
Drs. Robert Gehrz, Roberta Humphreys, Elisha Polomski and
Charles Woodward of the University of Minnesota, Twin
Cities.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations
are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center. Spitzer's
infrared array camera was built by NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The instrument's principal
investigator is Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics.
-end-
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
David Aguilar 617-495-7462
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
IMAGE ADVISORY: 2006-082 June 5, 2006
Andromeda Adrift in Sea of Dust in New NASA Image
The Andromeda galaxy, named for the mythological princess who
almost fell prey to a sea monster, appears tranquil in a new
image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The mesmerizing
infrared mosaic shows red waves of dust over a blue sea of
stars.
"What's really interesting about this view is the contrast
between the galaxy's smooth, flat disk of old stars and its
bumpy waves of dust heated by young stars," said Dr. Pauline
Barmby of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
Cambridge, Mass. Barmby and her colleagues recently observed
Andromeda using Spitzer.
To view the picture, visit
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-14/ .
Barmby and her team used the Spitzer data to make drastically
improved measurements of Andromeda's infrared brightness.
They found that the galaxy shines with the same amount of
energy as about 4 billion suns. Based on these measurements,
the astronomers confirmed that there are roughly 1 trillion
stars in the galaxy. Our Milky Way galaxy is estimated to
house a couple of hundred billion stars.
"This is the first time the stellar population of Andromeda
has been determined using the galaxy's infrared brightness,"
said Barmby. "It's reassuring to know our numbers are in
agreement with previous estimates of the mass of the stars
based on the stars' motion."
The new false-colored portrait also provides astronomers
with the best look yet at the dust-drenched spiral arms that
swirl out of the galaxy's center, a region hidden by bright
starlight in visible-light images. Dust and gas are the
building materials of stars. They are clumped together
throughout the spiral arms, where new stars are forming.
"The Spitzer data trace with startling clarity the star-
forming material all the way into the inner part of the
galaxy," said Dr. George Helou, deputy director of NASA's
Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena. "The challenge is to understand
what shapes the distribution of this gas and dust, and
what modulates the star formation at different locations."
Spitzer's infrared array camera captured infrared light
emanating from both older stars (blue) and dust made up of
molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (red).
These carbon-containing molecules are warmed by sunlight
and glow at infrared wavelengths. They are often associated
with dense clouds of new stars, and can be found on Earth
in barbecue pits and car exhaust, among other places.
The Andromeda galaxy, also known by astronomers as Messier
31, is located 2.5 million light-years away in the
constellation Andromeda. It is the closest major galaxy
to the Milky Way, making it the ideal specimen for
carefully examining the nature of galaxies. On a clear, dark
night, the galaxy can be spotted with the naked eye as a
fuzzy blob.
Andromeda spans about 260,000 light-years, which means that
a light beam would take 260,000 years to travel from one
end of the galaxy to the other. By comparison, the Milky
Way is about 100,000 light-years across. When viewed from
Earth, Andromeda occupies a portion of the sky equivalent
to seven full moons.
Spitzer's wide field of view allowed the telescope to
capture a complete snapshot of the Andromeda galaxy,
though the task wasn't easy. The final mosaic consists of
3,000 or so individual picture frames stitched together
seamlessly.
Barmby presented these observations today at the 208th
meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Calgary,
Canada. A previous image of Andromeda taken with
Spitzer's longer-wavelength infrared camera can be found at
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2005-20/ssc2005-20a.shtml
For more information about Spitzer, visit
www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer .
Other members of Barmby's team include: Drs. Steven
Willner, Matthew Ashby, John Huchra and Michael Pahre of
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Drs.
Luciana Bianchi and David Thilker of The Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, Md.; Drs. Charles Engelbracht,
Karl Gordon, Joannah Hinz, Pablo P?rez-Gonz?lez
and George Rieke of the University of Arizona, Tucson; and
Drs. Robert Gehrz, Roberta Humphreys, Elisha Polomski and
Charles Woodward of the University of Minnesota, Twin
Cities.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations
are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center. Spitzer's
infrared array camera was built by NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The instrument's principal
investigator is Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics.
-end-