Latest Andromeda constellation Stories

A team of astronomers from the UK, the US and Europe have identified a thick stellar disc in the nearby Andromeda galaxy for the first time. The discovery and properties of the thick disc will constrain the dominant physical processes involved in the formation and evolution of large spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way.By analyzing precise measurements of the velocities of individual bright stars within the Andromeda galaxy using the Keck telescope in Hawaii, the team have managed to...

The Andromeda Galaxy was formed as the result of a massive collision involving two separate galaxies that occurred billions of years ago, an international team of researchers has discovered.The astronomers, led by Francois Hammer of the Paris Observatory, conducted complex computer simulations of the galaxy's structural formation, both in France and at the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC). They then analyzed the results and prepared a study, which has been published in the...

Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a distant planet with a warm spot in the wrong place.The gas-giant planet, named upsilon Andromedae b, orbits tightly around its star, with one face perpetually boiling under the star's heat. It belongs to a class of planets termed hot Jupiters, so called for their scorching temperatures and large, gaseous constitutions.One might think the hottest part of these planets would be directly under the sun-facing side, but previous...

For over 10 years, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has repeatedly observed the Andromeda Galaxy for a combined total of nearly one million seconds. This unique data set has given astronomers an unprecedented view of the nearest supermassive black hole outside our own Galaxy.Astronomers think that most galaxies - including the Milky Way - contain giant black holes at their cores that are millions of times more massive than the Sun. At a distance of just under 3 million light years from Earth,...

Astronomers are reporting today the discovery of a planetary system way out of tilt, where the orbits of two planets are at a steep angle to each other. This surprising finding will impact theories of how multi-planet systems evolve, and it shows that some violent events can happen to disrupt planets' orbits after a planetary system forms, say researchers."The findings mean that future studies of exoplanetary systems will be more complicated. Astronomers can no longer assume all planets...

A diverse cast of cosmic characters is showcased in the first survey images NASA released Wednesday from its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE.Since WISE began its scan of the entire sky in infrared light on Jan. 14, the space telescope has beamed back more than a quarter of a million raw, infrared images. Four new, processed pictures illustrate a sampling of the mission's targets -- a wispy comet, a bursting star-forming cloud, the grand Andromeda galaxy and a faraway cluster of...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A diverse cast of cosmic characters is showcased in the first survey images NASA released Wednesday from its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Since WISE began its scan of the entire sky in infrared light on Jan. 14, the space telescope has beamed back more than a quarter of a million raw, infrared images. Four new, processed pictures illustrate a sampling of the...

In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own."Swift reveals about 20,000 ultraviolet sources in M31, especially hot, young stars and dense star clusters," said Stefan Immler, a research scientist on the Swift team at...

Astronomers have reported that the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy appears to have cannibalistic tendencies as it has expanded by "digesting" stars from other nearby galaxies.Writing in the journal Nature, an international team of astronomers made the discovery using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and its MegaCam/MegaPrime digital camera to conduct an ongoing survey.Experts have previously considered the concept of a cannibalistic galaxy, but the new study is the first to bring detailed...

 As scientists attempt to learn more about how galaxies evolve, an open question has been whether collisions with our dwarf galactic neighbors will one day tear apart the disk of the Milky Way.That grisly fate is unlikely, a new study now suggests.While astronomers know that such collisions have probably occurred in the past, the new computer simulations show that instead of destroying a galaxy, these collisions "puff up" a galactic disk, particularly around the edges, and produce...