Star Field in M31 Imaged by Hubble WFC3

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the star field around the Cepheid variable V1 in M31. This two-color image shows individually resolved stars in the outer disk of the Andromeda Galaxy. The soft, brown swirls are dust lanes obscuring light from stars farther away from our line of sight. The blue cluster towards the upper right of the image contains massive young stars that are emanating intense ultraviolet light. The Cepheid variable, V1, the first Cepheid ever found outside of our own galaxy, is a moderate-looking star in the lower left of the image.

About the colours

This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on HST. Several filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Cyan: F475X (Wide Blue) Orange: F600LP (Long Pass)

About the data

The image was created from Hubble data from proposal 12326 : K. Noll (PI), Z. Levay, M. Mutchler, T. Borders, L. Frattare, M. Livio, C. Christian, D. Soderblom, and H. Bond (Hubble Heritage Team/STScI).

Note: The Hubble Space Telescope observations of Hubble's Variable M31-V1 were made possible from ground-based data provided by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).