The Andromeda Galaxy, our Milky Means’s closest spiral neighbor, sits 2.5 million light-years away. For over 25 years, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has been peeling again the universe’s high-energy secrets and techniques, and its newest work is a brand new portrait of Andromeda, or Messier 31 (M31).
This can be a wealthy tapestry woven from a number of telescopes. Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton seize the X-ray glow, GALEX grabs ultraviolet sparks, ground-based astrophotographers provide the optical shimmer, Spitzer reveals infrared heat, and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope sketches radio waves.
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NASA takes it additional with a 30-second sonification that turns information into sound. Image the galaxy’s pictures layered vertically as a line sweeps throughout, reworking mild into notes. X-rays sing in excessive, clear chimes, whereas infrared and radio resonate with deeper hums. Brighter spots hit louder, crafting a haunting melody that feels just like the galaxy’s personal voice. “This soundscape mirrors the composite’s wavelengths,” the Chandra group explains.
In X-ray mild, Chandra unveils Andromeda’s core, the place a supermassive black gap burns fiercely, surrounded by dense objects like neutron stars or stellar corpses. “Every wavelength tells a singular story about our galactic neighbor,” the Chandra group says.
Shift to infrared, and the galaxy’s spiral arms glow with rings of fuel and mud, orbiting a swollen core. Optical mild softens the scene, with arms fading into smoky bands sprinkled with starlight. Ultraviolet sharpens the view, spotlighting star-forming areas that burst like cosmic fireworks round a radiant central hub. In radio, the arms loosen into coiled, ropey strands, with no clear middle to carry them.
This challenge additionally honors Dr. Vera Rubin, whose groundbreaking measurements of Andromeda’s rotation curves supplied early proof for darkish matter’s invisible halos. “Her work reshaped how we perceive galaxies,” the Chandra group notes. In 2025, Rubin’s legacy shines on a U.S. quarter, a primary for an astronomer.
Chandra’s precision comes from its exceptional design. Launched in 1999 aboard the House Shuttle Columbia, its mirrors, smoothed to near-atomic perfection, detect X-ray sources 100 occasions fainter than earlier tech.
