Hyper cam captures stunning image of Andromeda

A stunning new image of Andromeda has been captured by a special camera, revealing our twin galaxy as it has never been seen before.

The Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope took the image which shows the Andromeda Galaxy in sharp clarity in a wide field of view. The picture represents a milestone in observational astronomy and has changed the way we see space forever.

Click here to see more images of the Andromeda Galaxy

The mission of the Subaru Telescope is to carry out a large-scale survey of the Universe and help gather information on dark energy and dark matter.

The Andromeda Galaxy also knows as M31 is the nearest to our own Milky Way Galaxy at only 2.5million light years away. The spiral galaxy has caught the eye of astronomers since 964 A.D. when al-Sufi wrote about it.

Andromeda can be seen with the naked eye on moonless nights and is source of interest to astronomers because of the similarities to the Milky Way, particularly in relation to how the galaxy was formed.

The ring-like swirls of dust filling the Andromeda galaxy (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/NHSC)

The Andromeda galaxy from the Herschel space observatory (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/NHSC)