A composite image of the Andromeda galaxy reveals cool, dusty areas with embryonic stars (red) and older stars (green) (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Stellar newborns and wizened old stars rub elbows in a newly released image of our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda.
The picture combines images taken in ultraviolet light from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and in infrared light from its Spitzer Space Telescope.
GALEX’s ultraviolet measurements reveal relatively old stars as green dots, with a particularly dense retirement community of these stars emitting the yellow glow at the galaxy’s centre.
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Meanwhile, Spitzer detected cool, dusty stellar nurseries, which are denoted in red. Young, hot, massive stars appear blue.
In the pinkish purple areas in Andromeda’s spiral arms, hot, high-mass stars live together with cooler stars shielded by dust.
