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The closest galaxy to our own Milky
Way Galaxy is Andromeda (also known as M31). Like the Milky Way, Andromeda
is a spiral galaxy.
Although it's the closest galaxy to our own, the Andromeda galaxy is about 2.2
million light years
away from us. While this is indeed a very long distance, it's really nothing in
the scheme of the entire universe. Some galaxies are billions of light years
away!
Like most galaxies, Andromeda contains hundreds of billions of stars! It
is in fact the largest galaxy in our local group which consists of about 30
other galaxies. It is 125,000 light years in diameter and it contains about twice as many stars as the Milky Way.
It is generally agreed that Andromeda is the most distant object that is visible
from earth with the naked eye.
Here are a few details about the Andromeda galaxy:
- Right Ascension 00 : 42.7 (h:m)
- Declination +41 : 16 (deg:m)
- Distance from earth 2.2 million light years
- Visual Brightness 3.4 (mag)
- Apparent Dimension 178x63 (arc min)
- Messier Number 31
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