Hubble Survey Unlocks Clues to Star Birth in Neighboring Galaxy

Originally shared by Pierre Markuse

Hubble Survey Unlocks Clues to Star Birth in Neighboring Galaxy

In a survey of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope images of 2,753 young, blue star clusters in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (M31), astronomers have found that M31 and our own galaxy have a similar percentage of newborn stars based on mass. By nailing down what percentage of stars have a particular mass within a cluster, or the Initial Mass Function (IMF), scientists can better interpret the light from distant galaxies and understand the formation history of stars in our universe.

Full story here:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/18/full/

More on star formation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_formation

More on the Andromeda galaxy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy

Image credit: M31, Andromeda Galaxy NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), and the PHAT team http://goo.gl/cl2GLp

#science   #m31   #andromedagalaxy   #hubble   #space   #starformation   #imf   #milkywaygalaxy