Download Andromeda Galaxy • M31

Object:
Andromeda Galaxy • M31
Distance from Earth:
2.5 million light-years
Size:
260,000 light-years across
Telescope:
Spitzer Space Telescope
Light:
Infrared (blue 3.67μm, red 8.0μm)
Description:
Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi made
the earliest recorded observation of the Andromeda
Galaxy in ad 964. Along with our Milky Way, this galaxy
belongs to a group of galaxies known as the Local
Group. Andromeda contains over one trillion stars—
about three times the Milky Way’s 200–400 billion
stars. But watch out! Astronomers predict that
the two galaxies could collide several billion
years from now.
Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/P. Barmby (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)