OUR neighbour in the cosmos, the Andromeda Galaxy, is home to curious concentric rings of cold dust that may one day sparkle with stars, astronomers say.
Using the Infrared Space Observatory, Martin Haas of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and his colleagues captured images of the galaxy鈥檚 cold gas at about -257 掳C . These show two concentric rings about 30 000 and 40 000 light years from the centre, and a possible ring closer to the middle (Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol 338, p L33).
The galaxy鈥檚 visible starlight comes mainly from giant spiral arms. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so extraordinary that the galaxy has a completely different infrared and visible structure,鈥� says Haas. He thinks Andromeda鈥檚 starlight will one day come mainly from the concentric rings, as the cold gas should eventually form stars.
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