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The image in question is a photomosaic, that is, an image made up of a multitude of photos assembled one next to the other. The image shown in this photomosaic is the Andromeda Galaxy,<\/strong> a spiral galaxy also known as Messier 31 that is about 2.5 million light-years from the Milky Way. NASA notes<\/a>: \"It took over 10 years to make this vast and colorful portrait of the galaxy<\/strong>, requiring over 600 Hubble overlapping snapshots that were challenging to stitch together. \"<\/em><\/p>\n To create this photomosaic, which you can see above, more than 1,000 orbits of the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope<\/strong> were needed, launched into orbit on April 24, 1990 by the space shuttle Discovery during its STS-31 mission. NASA explains the procedure used as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n \"This panorama started with the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program about a decade ago.<\/strong> Images were obtained at near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard Hubble to photograph the northern half of Andromeda.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n NASA has released this photomosaic in two images<\/strong> that can be downloaded from its website:<\/p>\n The photomosaic includes the brightness of 200 million stars.<\/strong> That may seem like a lot, but they are actually just a small fraction of the stars that make up the galaxy, as NASA explains: \"The Andromeda galaxy, our galactic neighbor, holds over 1 trillion stars<\/strong> and has been a key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. Thanks to NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope, we\u2019re now seeing Andromeda in stunning new detail, revealing its dynamic history and unique structure.\"<\/em><\/p>\n About this galaxy, Daniel Weisz of the University of California, Berkeley, notes: \"Andromeda looks like a transitional type of galaxy that's between a star-forming spiral and a sort of elliptical galaxy<\/strong> dominated by aging red stars. We can say that it has a large central bulge of older stars<\/strong> and a star-forming disk that is not as active as one might expect given the mass of the galaxy.\"<\/em><\/p>\n NASA has released this video showing some details about the mosaic<\/strong>. If you can't see any details in the photomosaic or the video, NASA notes that the Andromeda galaxy and our galaxy, the Milky Way, will merge in about 4.5 billion years<\/strong>, so you'll just have to wait a bit to get a better look:<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54270740090_fdb0969195_b.jpg\")
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