Andromeda Galaxy

Description

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and the largest galaxy in the Local Group. It’s about 2.5 million light-years away from Earth and spans roughly 220,000 light-years in diameter, making it more than twice the size of the Milky Way.

Visually, Andromeda is a stunning, elongated spiral galaxy with bright, densely packed core regions and expansive spiral arms filled with dust lanes, young blue stars, and star-forming regions. It also has several satellite galaxies, including M32and M110, which can often be seen in astrophotography images.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Andromeda is that it is on a collision course with the Milky Way—set to merge with our galaxy in about 4.5 billion years. When viewed from Earth, Andromeda is the most distant object visible to the naked eye under dark skies.