RICHMOND, Va. — The Science Museum of Virginia invites the public to attend first-of-its-kind showings of a stunning new view of the Andromeda Galaxy this weekend.
CBS 6 met with astronomer Justin Bartel inside “The Dome” at the museum on West Broad Street in Richmond.
Last month, NASA released the most comprehensive survey of the closest galaxy to the Milky Way.
Astronomers spent a decade compiling this special image with the Hubble Space Telescope and then stitched together 600 photos to showcase over 200 million stars.
“It was released for a couple of reasons. Primarily because it's the 100th anniversary of us figuring out how big the universe is. The Andromeda Galaxy was the first one that astronomers measured the distance to — and prior to 1925, they were debating whether the Milky Way was all that there was or whether there were other things in the universe. Andromeda helped us figure it out,” Bartel, the museum's assistant director of education for astronomy programs, said.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the farthest object visible to the naked eye and appears as a fuzzy cigar shape in the sky.
Bartel will deploy “The Dome’s” massive screen to explore this mosaic at its full resolution.
“I think it's just a reminder that we're part of something larger, right?” Bartel explained. “This is a whole separate galaxy. It's an area of active study, and we're finding that all throughout the Andromeda Galaxy new stars are forming. Stars are burning out.”
Thanks to “The Dome’s” digital technology, they can also track the path of Asteroid 2024 YR4 that scientists warn has a 2 percent chance of hitting Earth in seven years.
Tickets for the live universe exploration shows scheduled for 12 p.m. over the President’s Day holiday weekend can be purchased at SMV.org.
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