The Andromeda Galaxy, once known as The Great Nebula in Andromeda, is one of the largest members of what is called the Local Group. It is a spiral galaxy closest to our solar system, and is visible as a faint, misty spot in the Andromeda constellation. It is also classified as M31. This classification comes from it being the 31st object in a list first compiled by the 18th century French astronomer Charles Messier. This list was a list of things that were not comets, for which he was searching. Andromeda was even mistakenly believed to be a nebula prior to being observed by way of powerful telescopes.
The distance between M31 and the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 2.2 million light-years, and is the nearest spiral galaxy. This supports the fact that Andromeda is not an "open or globular" cluster in our Milky Way galaxy, but
yet a tremendous independent celestial creation. Being classified as a spiral galaxy, Andromeda is characterized by a nuclear bulge, and by arched lanes of stars and glowing interstellar clouds, which appear as spiral arms. Andromeda is very similar in size and spiral configuration to our own galaxy. This galaxy is the only object, not part of the Milky Way that can be seen with the unassisted eye. Supported by a good observing environment, even the galaxy's bright central protuberance can be detected with the eye. This galaxy covers and area in the Northern Hemisphere's evening sky roughly five times as large as the full moon.
Apparent Dimension 178x63 (arc min)
Basic information on the Andromeda Galaxy:
Although 2.2 million light-years away, M31 is close enough to us that images of its core, less than 1 pc across, can be resolved by the Hubble Space
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