The proper motion of Andromeda from Gaia EDR3: confirming a nearly radial orbit
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract We present an analysis of the proper motion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), based on the Early Third Data Release of the Gaia mission. We use the Gaia photometry to select young blue main sequence stars, and apply several quality cuts to obtain clean samples of these tracers. After correcting the proper motion measurements for the internal rotation of the M31 disk motion, we derive an apparent motion of 52.5 ± 5.8 μas/yr with respect to the Gaia reference frame, or 61.9 ± 9.7 μas/yr after applying a zero-point correction determined from quasars within $20\deg$ from M31 and a correction from systemic biases. Accounting for the Solar reflex motion we deduce a relative velocity between Andromeda and the Milky way (in a non-rotating frame at the current location of the Sun) of 42.2 ± 39.3 km s−1 along right ascension (40.0 ± 39.3 km s−1 along galactic longitude) and −59.4 ± 30.3 km s−1 along declination (−60.9 ± 30.3 km s−1 along galactic latitude), with a total transverse velocity of Vtrans = 82.4 ± 31.2 km s−1. These values are consistent with (but more accurate than) earlier Hubble Space Telescope measurements that predict a future merger between the two galaxies. We also note a surprisingly large difference in the derived proper motion between the blue stars in M31 and samples of red stars that appear to lie in that galaxy. We propose several hypotheses to explain the discrepancy but found no clear evidence with the current data to privilege any one of them.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".