狈础厂础鈥檚 has produced a stunningly detailed portrait of the Galaxy, displaying a full spiral face aglow with the light of nearly 25 million individually resolved stars. It is the largest high-resolution mosaic image of Triangulum ever assembled, composed of 54 Hubble fields of view spanning an area 19,400 light-years across.
The project behind this mosaic is led by , a 91探花 professor of astronomy. Other major contributors include 91探花astronomy graduate student Meredith Durbin and 91探花astronomy professor .
The images show areas of star birth glow bright blue throughout the galaxy, particularly in nebulas of hot, ionized hydrogen gas.
Triangulum, also known as M33, is a spiral galaxy and one of our neighbors in a collection of dozens of galaxies called the Local Group. Triangulum is oriented with its face toward us, ideal for studying the distribution of stars and gas in its well-defined spiral structure. While astronomers are still delving into the immense trove of data collected by Hubble, a few characteristics stand out immediately, inviting comparisons and contrasts with our own Milky Way galaxy and the third large spiral galaxy in the Local Group, the Andromeda galaxy.
鈥淢y first impression on seeing the Hubble images was, wow, that really is a lot of star formation,鈥� said Dalcanton. 鈥淭he star formation rate intensity is 10 times higher than the area surveyed in 2015.鈥�
Astronomers think that Triangulum has been an introvert, avoiding disruptive interactions with other galaxies, instead spending the eons tending its well-ordered spiral and turning out new generations of stars. Further research may determine if Triangulum is actually a newer member of the Local Group of galaxies, and whether its quiet days will soon be over.
This mosaic was created from images taken by Hubble鈥檚 Advanced Camera for Surveys between February 2017 and February 2018. The panoramic image was presented at this week鈥檚 of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
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For more information, contact Dalcanton at jd@astro.washington.edu聽and Williams at ben@astro.washington.edu.
Adapted from press releases by the and the .