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Credit & Copyright: Gerardo Ferrarino
Explanation:
How far can you see?
The Andromeda Galaxy
at 2.5 million light years away is the most distant object
easily seen with your unaided
eye.
Most other apparent denizens of the night sky --
stars, clusters, and nebulae --
typically range from a few hundred to a few thousand
light-years away and lie well within our own
Milky Way Galaxy.
Given its distance, light from
Andromeda
is likely also the
oldest light that you can see.
Also known as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy dominates the center of the featured
zoomed image,
taken from the
dunes of Bahöa Creek,
Patagonia, in southern
Argentina.
The image is a combination of 45 background images with one foreground image --
all taken with the same camera and from the same location within 90 minutes.
M110, a
satellite galaxy of Andromenda is visible just below and to the left of M31's
core.
As cool
as it may be to see this neighboring galaxy to our Milky Way with your own eyes,
long duration camera exposures
can pick up many faint and breathtaking details.
Recent data indicates that
our Milky Way Galaxy
will collide and combine with the
similarly-sized Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Andromeda galaxy - M 31
Publications with words: Andromeda galaxy - M 31
See also:
- NGC 206 and the Star Clouds of Andromeda
- APOD: 2024 September 8 Á M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
- APOD: 2023 November 13 Á Andromeda over the Alps
- The Once and Future Stars of Andromeda
- APOD: 2023 August 23 Á The Meteor and the Galaxy
- APOD: 2023 March 22 Á M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
- APOD: 2023 January 17 Á Unexpected Clouds Toward the Andromeda Galaxy