in Greek mythology the princess
Andromeda was sacrifice to appease of
sea monsters appetite but astronomers
are learning that the Andromeda galaxy
is less the spiral beauty and more
voracious beast
the hidden universe showcase explorers
exciting new results and infrared
astronomy from NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope with your host dr. Robert
have you ever noticed if you look at
pizza edge-on it's kind of hard to tell
what you're getting
what do you think maybe sausage and
green pepper we're changing our
perspective yields BBQ chicken zucchini
and avocado probably not what you
expected
astronomers have had similar surprises
when studying galaxies like the
neighboring Andromeda at a distance of
2.5 million light-years it's still the
closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky
Way and was considered to be nearly its
twin in fact Andromeda or in 31 is over
twice as large holding about a trillion
stars traditionally astronomers thought
it was a classic spiral galaxy with
graceful tightly-wound arms
this was based on how spirals typically
appear when seen from the edge but from
this perspective it's just plain hard to
see what's going on in the disc the
stars are all jumbled together with the
dust lanes that trace the spiral arms
this is where the infrared I of NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope can help sort
things out
when you and galaxies at infrared
wavelengths the dust lanes glow spiral
arms and other structures are easy to
see
Spitzer's view of Andromeda is nothing
short of spectacular the shorter
wavelengths from the Iraq instrument we
see both the stars and dust lanes and
sharp detail at longer wavelengths seen
by the midst detector the Starlight
mostly fades letting us study the warm
dust directly without the confusion of
stars we see Andromeda is missing one
for any common element most spiral
galaxies the spiral stretching the image
to simulate what we see from above
it's pretty clear that most of the dust
Andromeda lies in a ring not in arms at
all
what happened to the arms the smoking
gun or rather speeding bullet can be
seen near the disc of Andromeda known as
in 32 the small satellite galaxies seems
to have had a big impact astronomers
have deduced that about 210 million
years ago
all dinosaurs still ruled the earth in
32 plunge through Andromeda's disc
computer simulations show that such an
encounter will disrupt spiral arms will
morph into rings like gravitational
ripples in the Galactic pond the
simulations very closely match the dusty
rings we see today
combining the infrared view of Spitzer
with the ultraviolet light captured by
nasa's Galaxy Evolution Explorer offers
yet another perspective the disrupted
ring and irregular splashes of the
hottest young stars highlight the
ongoing disruption Andromeda while in 32
has four now ruined beautiful spiral its
own fate is sealed Greek mythology
accounts rather stereotypically daring
Perseus rescued princess Andromeda the
big scary sea monster but in a case of
scientific role reversal we see the
Andromeda galaxy is no help us appetizer
and devouring Beast itself there are
signs
it's already gobbled up other small
galaxies in 32 will be the next snack
but the main course is yet to come in as
little as five billion years about the
life expectancy of our son Andromeda and
the Milky Way likely Clyde our own
galaxy will merge with the larger
Andromeda after a pretty spectacular
show
perhaps we need the rescue it just goes
to show that appearances can be
deceiving in both pieces and galaxies
looking at either from a new perspective
like spitzer is done with Andromeda
annual interesting and even tasty
surprises first picture sanction or I'm
dr. Robert the hidden universe is
produced by the Spitzer Science Center
at the California Institute of
Technology and capacity
Spitzer mission is managed by NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory this vodcast is
also available in high definition
perfect for high-res monitors and hdtvs
I get throughout the only person around
it doesn't have TV coverage to the baby
and then they got the black up now
you're gonna be with by the TV picture
now epic fail yet we are getting a TV
picture with him now
qty all
what