Astronomers announced last week that they had completed a decade-long, meticulous effort to assemble a full portrait of our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. The result is a stunning panoramic view that provides the most detailed image yet of the entire galaxy; its science-packed features could revolutionize our understanding of how spiral galaxies across the universe form and evolve.
Around 2015, astronomers took on the painstaking task of stitching together Hubble Space Telescope images of this galaxy, but that effort had focused on the galaxy's northern half. Still, however, the resulting image showcased a sweeping view of 100 million stars packed into about 1.5 billion pixels.
