Meet the Milky Way's Neighbor: The Andromeda Galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy is a giant swirl of around a trillion stars just down the street from the Milky Way. But billions of years from now, it will collide with our home galaxy.

By Eric Betz
May 19, 2021 8:35 PM
andromeda galaxy infrared
Newly forming stars glow fiery bright in this infrared image of the Andromeda Galaxy taken by the European Space Agency's Herschel spacecraft. The galaxy's spiral structure, which is similar to that of the Milky Way, will morph into one large elliptical galaxy once it merges with the Milky Way. ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/J. Fritz, U. Gent; X-ray: ESA/XMM Newton/EPIC/W. Pietsch, MPE

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If you look toward the constellation Andromeda on a clear night far from city lights, you can barely make out a long, fuzzy blob called the Andromeda Galaxy.

The Andromeda Galaxy, or M31, is the nearest large neighbor of our Milky Way, though it sits some 2.5 million light-years away. That makes it the most distant object regularly visible with the naked eye.

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