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WISE Studies Our Neighbor Andromeda

M31 is a spiral galaxy seen in this image against a black sky speckled with blue points of light. It appears like a flying disk toy seen tilted up and to the left, with a bright orange circle of light and tendrils of orange and pale blue light swirling in toward a central bright, white spot.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Published: February 17, 2010

The immense Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or simply M31, is captured in this image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). WISE used all four of its infrared detectors to capture this picture: 3.4- and 4.6-micron light is blue; 12-micron light is green; and 22-micron light is red. Blue highlights mature stars, while yellow and red show dust heated by newborn, massive stars.

More information: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/pia12832-c.html

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