Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Andromeda (And)  ·  Contains:  Great Nebula in Andromeda  ·  M 110  ·  M 31  ·  M 32  ·  NGC 205  ·  NGC 221  ·  NGC 224

Image of the day 09/11/2016

    M31 (HaRGB), John Renaud
    M31 (HaRGB)
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    M31 (HaRGB)

    Image of the day 09/11/2016

      M31 (HaRGB), John Renaud
      M31 (HaRGB)
      Powered byPixInsight

      M31 (HaRGB)

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      Description

      At 2.5 million light years away, Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. Both are massive spiral galaxies, with Andromeda being the largest galaxy in the Local Group of about 40 galaxies. It is thought to contain a trillion stars, compared to the estimated 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way.

      Andromeda is among the brightest of the Messier objects and the most distant object that can be seen with the naked eye. Andromeda was once thought to be a nebula - the Great Andromeda Nebula. It wasn't until 1924, when Edwin Hubble famously established the distance to Cepheid variable stars in Andromeda, that Andromeda was shown to actually be a giant galaxy outside our own galaxy.

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      M31 (HaRGB), John Renaud

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