| Description: | M31 is located in Andromeda and is sometimes called the Andromeda Nebula, in a dark sky it can easily be seen with
the unaided eye or binoculars as a fuzzy patch of light. Together with our own Milky Way galaxy and M33 it belongs to the three biggest members of the Local Group of galaxies. It's distance is about 2.35 million light years, it's mass is about 1.5 times the mass of our own galaxy and it is approaching us at a speed of 140 km/s. At this rate we will collide in about 3 billion years and this merger will probably form a big elliptical galaxy. The compact round galaxy below M31 is M32, M110 is top left in this picture. This image is a 30 minute exposure with a 20cm astrograph from Beilen. |
