Zooming in on stars in the Andromeda Galaxy’s giant stellar stream

This video zooms in on the location of Hubble observations in the Andromeda Galaxy’s giant stellar stream. An area which appears virtually empty in the wide-field view is revealed as being packed with huge numbers of stars.

The stream is a swathe of stars left over from a galaxy which was engulfed by the Andromeda Galaxy. While it is not clearly visible in the wide-field view of the galaxy, detailed observations like Hubble’s show that the density of stars here is noticeably higher than elsewhere in the galaxy’s halo.