Table of Contents
What does the M in M31 stand for?
the Andromeda Galaxy
Messier 31 (M31), better known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is a large spiral galaxy located in the constellation Andromeda. Lying at a distance of 2.54 million light years from Earth, the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest major galaxy to our own. Messier 31 has an apparent magnitude of 3.44.
What’s the meaning of Andromeda?
Definition of Andromeda (Entry 2 of 2) 1 : an Ethiopian princess of Greek mythology rescued from a monster by her future husband Perseus. 2 [Latin (genitive Andromedae)] : a northern constellation directly south of Cassiopeia between Pegasus and Perseus.
Is Andromeda a star or galaxy?
1 trillion
Andromeda Galaxy/Stars
Which is bigger Milky Way or Andromeda?
By some estimates, the Andromeda Galaxy contains roughly one trillion stars. That’s significantly bigger than the Milky Way, which more recent estimates suggest is 150,000 light-years across (though the exact boundary of where either of these galaxies “end” is a bit nebulous).
Will the Milky Way collide with Andromeda?
Previous simulations have suggested that Andromeda and the Milky Way are scheduled for a head-on collision in about 4 billion to 5 billion years. But the new study estimates that the two star groups will swoop closely past each other about 4.3 billion years from now and then fully merge about 6 billion years later.
What is the largest galaxy in the universe?
IC 1101
The biggest known galaxy is IC 1101, which is 50 times the Milky Way’s size and about 2,000 times more massive. It is about 5.5 million light-years across. Nebulas, or vast clouds of gas, also have impressively large sizes.
What is a nickname for Andromeda?
Andromeda is elaborate, but nicknames abound: Andi, Annie, Ana, Anna, Rommie, Dree, Meda, and my favorite, Romy.
Who said that Andromeda is a galaxy?
Only in the 1920s did the American astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble determine conclusively that the Andromeda was in fact a separate galaxy beyond the Milky Way.
What is the biggest star in Andromeda?
Andromeda (constellation)
| Constellation | |
|---|---|
| List of stars in Andromeda | |
| Brightest star | α And (Alpheratz) (2.07) |
| Messier objects | 3 |
| Meteor showers | Andromedids (Bielids) |
What is the biggest thing in the universe?
Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall
The largest known structure in the Universe is called the ‘Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall’, discovered in November 2013. This object is a galactic filament, a vast group of galaxies bound together by gravity, about 10 billion light-years away.
How fast is Andromeda moving towards us?
per second
And that’s going to happen someday! The Andromeda galaxy is currently racing toward our Milky Way at a speed of about 70 miles (110 km) per second. Ultimately, the two galaxies will collide and merge.
Will humans ever leave the Milky Way?
So, to leave our Galaxy, we would have to travel about 500 light-years vertically, or about 25,000 light-years away from the galactic centre. We’d need to go much further to escape the ‘halo’ of diffuse gas, old stars and globular clusters that surrounds the Milky Way’s stellar disk.