Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Andromeda (And)  ·  Contains:  35 And  ·  35 nu. And  ·  Andromeda Galaxy  ·  HD3431  ·  HD3765  ·  HD3969  ·  HD4143  ·  HD4174  ·  HD4322  ·  HD4501  ·  HD4669  ·  HD4902  ·  M 110  ·  M 31  ·  M 32  ·  NGC 205  ·  NGC 206  ·  NGC 221  ·  NGC 224  ·  The star ν And
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Clouds of Andromeda, Darius Kopriva
Powered byPixInsight

Clouds of Andromeda

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Clouds of Andromeda, Darius Kopriva
Powered byPixInsight

Clouds of Andromeda

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the Ethiopian (or Phoenician) princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology.

The red clouds in the image consist of ionized hydrogen. Optically it looks like the clouds are in the background.

Still, the ionized hydrogen clouds likely lie in the foreground of the scene, well within our Milky Way Galaxy. They could be associated with the pervasive, dusty interstellar cirrus clouds scattered hundreds of light-years above our own galactic plane. If they were located at the 2.5 million light-year distance of the Andromeda Galaxy they would be enormous, since the Andromeda Galaxy itself is 200,000 or so light-years across.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Clouds of Andromeda, Darius Kopriva

In these public groups

Southern Hemisphere Astro