Andromeda in Ultraviolet
In a break from
its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift
satellite 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. This mosaic of
M31 merges 330 individual images taken by Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical
Telescope. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000
light-years high (100 arcminutes by 50 arcminutes).
Image Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)