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Astronomy: Messier 31 the Andromeda Galaxy
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The Andromeda Galaxy - or the Andromeda Nebula - is the nearest major galaxy near our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, at a distance of some 2 million light-years. It is about 150.000 light years across and so bright that you can observe it with an amature telescope. Our galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier's list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our galaxy that are well in front of the background object. However, the bright spot north of Andromeda's center is its companion galaxy M32, a small circular galaxy. Much about Andromeda remains unknown, including how the center acquired two nuclei. Related subjects>> Spacemap: from the Local Group of galaxies until Earth>> Companion galaxy M32 >> Messier catalog of 110 deep sky objects >> Charles Messier |
 The bright spot north of Andromeda's center is its companion galaxy M32 < JPG image 640 X 513 pixels >  The Andromeda Galaxy in infrared light taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005. < JPG image 1200 X 660 pixels > Crashing towards us? Not right now... As a member of the Local Group of galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy is gravitationally bound to our own galaxy, which results in a current speed of 310 km/sec towards us. Luckily, at this speed, it would take many years to reach us. At a distance of 2 million light-years (2 mln X 94.605.300.000.000 km ) and at this current speed, it would take 610.356.774.193.548.000 years to reach us. This illustrates the vastness of the Universe very nicely. |
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