NASA release the largest and sharpest image ever taken of the Andromeda galaxy by the ESA Hubble Space Telescope showing over 100 million stars.
NASA has released its highest quality image ever; comprising 1.5 billion pixels and boasting 1000 times the resolution of a regular high-definition picture.
The large composite image is of the Andromeda galaxy, the closest spiral galaxy to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which is 2.5 million light years away.
It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and is 60,000 by 22,000 pixels. At 4.3 gigabytes in size, if you tried to display the whole image, you would need the equivalent of 750 HD television screens.
The significance of the photograph taken by researchers at the University of Washington, is it represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies. Andromeda was chosen because it is easier to take extreme high-resolution images of neighbouring galaxies than others millions of light years away.
"Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area," wrote NASA on their website.
Zoom in on the composite image of the Andromeda galaxy
"Most of the stars in the universe live inside such majestic star cities, and this is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy."
All up it took three years to capture the image and there were 7,398 separate exposures taken from more than 411 points to create highly detailed composite images.
NASA says the detail of the image, which contains 100 million stars, is unrivalled and when put into context would be "like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand".
Individuals can download the image and are advised to experiment by zooming in and out to fully appreciate the 61,000 light year-long galaxy captured by the image.
"We seek to unravel the secrets of our universe, its origins and evolution, and search for life among the stars," wrote NASA. "Today's announcement shares the discovery of our ever-changing cosmos, and brings us closer to learning whether we are alone in the universe."
- SMH