Chandra Release - February 17, 2010

Visual Description: M31, Type 1a Supernovas

The composite image of the galaxy M31 (Andromeda galaxy) shows a bright spiral as the main image with an inset at upper right detailing the X-ray core in brighter oranges. The galaxy has a predominantly light grey-blue color, with the center appearing brighter and with some darker rims of dust toward the edges. The large, spiral-shaped object takes up much of the image and looks like a textured pancake tilted towards the upper left.  This composite image of M31 shows X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in gold, optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey in light blue and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in red. The Chandra data covers only the central region of M31 as shown in the inset box for the image.