Andromeda galaxy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Andromeda Galaxy, M31 |
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M31 or Andromeda Galaxy, a galaxy discovered by Azophi in year 964
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| Observation data (J2000.0 epoch) | |
| Right ascension | 00h 42m 44.3s |
| Declination | ±41° 16′ 09″ |
| Redshift | -0.001001 |
| Distance | 2.5 millions of ly |
| Notable features | Most visible galaxy from the Earth |
| Other designations | |
| M31, NGC 224, UGC 454 | |
| Azophi | |
| See also: Galaxy, List of galaxies | |
The Andromeda galaxy is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, our galaxy. Andromeda is sometimes called M31 or NGC 224 by astronomers. It is about 2.6 million light years away from us.
Andromeda is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which consists of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, Andromeda may not be the most massive. Recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and may be the most massive in the grouping.
The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains a trillion stars (1012). This is more than the number of stars in our own galaxy, which is estimated to be c. 200-400 billion.
Andromeda is estimated to be 7.1×1011 solar masses. In comparison, a 2009 study estimated that the Milky Way and Andromeda are about equal in mass, while a 2006 study put the mass of the Milky Way at ~80% of the mass of Andromeda.
At an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is notable for being one of the brightest Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. Although it appears more than six times as wide as the full Moon when photographed through a larger telescope, only the brighter central region is visible to the naked eye. Being both large and bright, it is one of the farthest objects that can be seen without a telescope or binoculars.
The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 100 to 140 kilometres per second (62 to 87 mi/s), so it is one of the few blue shifted galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are thus expected to collide in perhaps 4.5 billion years. The Milky Way–Andromeda collision is likely to make the galaxies merge, to form a giant elliptical galaxy. Such events are frequent among the galaxies in galaxy groups.
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Near neighbours
Orbiting M31 are at least 13 dwarf galaxies. the brightest and largest is M110, which can be seen with a basic telescope. The second-brightest and closest one to M31 is M32.
Observational history
The Persian astronomer Al Sufi was the first man to record seeing the Andromeda Galaxy. He called the Galaxy 'a small cloud' in his book, the Book of Fixed Stars, which was published in 964 AD. The first person to look at the galaxy with a telescope was Simon Marius in 1612. In 1764 Charles Messier put it into his catalogue of astronomical objects. He called it M31 and gave the credit for its discovery to Marius, as he did not know that Al Sufi had seen it hundreds of years previously.
In 1751 William Herschel estimated the distance to the Andromeda 'Nebula' as 'no more than 2000 times the distance to Sirius, or around 17,200 light years. The best modern estimate of Andromeda's distance is 2.54 million light years. In the 1920s astronomer Edwin Hubble proved that Andromeda was a galaxy, and not a gas cloud in the Milky Way as had been thought.
Andromeda galaxy in fiction
- A for Andromeda: a 1961 BBC science fiction drama series written by astronomer Fred Hoyle and John Elliott, and broadcast by BBC tv in seven episodes. Remade in 2006 as a film.
- The Andromeda Breakthrough was a BBC 1962 sequel written by Fred Hoyle and John Elliott.
- Andromeda (2002 TV series). A Canadian/American science fiction television series, based on unused material by Gene Roddenberry, and developed by Robert Hewitt Wolfe.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Great Andromeda "Nebula" (M110 to upper left), as photographed by Isaac Roberts, 1899.
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Andromeda Galaxy near upper-left of the Very Large Telescope. The Triangulum Galaxy is visible on the top.
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Illustration showing both the size of each galaxy and the distance between the two galaxies, to scale.
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The Andromeda Galaxy (M110 below) seen in infrared by the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of NASA's four Great Space Observatories.
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Image of the Andromeda Galaxy taken by Spitzer in infrared, 24 micrometres (Credit:NASA/JPL–Caltech/Karl D. Gordon, University of Arizona).
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A Galaxy Evolution Explorer image of the Andromeda Galaxy. The bands of blue-white making up the galaxy's striking rings are neighborhoods that harbor hot, young, massive stars. Dark blue-grey lanes of cooler dust show up starkly against these bright rings, tracing the regions where star formation is currently taking place in dense cloudy cocoons. When observed in visible light, the Andromeda Galaxy's rings look more like spiral arms. The ultraviolet view shows that these arms more closely resemble the ring-like structure previously observed in infrared wavelengths with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers using the latter interpreted these rings as evidence that the galaxy was involved in a direct collision with its neighbor, M32, more than 200 million years ago.
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Chandra X-ray telescope image of the center of the Andromeda Galaxy. A number of X-ray sources, likely X-ray binary stars, within the galaxy's central region appear as yellowish dots. The blue source at the center is at the position of the supermassive black hole.
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The Andromeda Galaxy in high-energy X-ray and ultraviolet light (released 5 January 2016).
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Messier 32 is to the left of the center, Messier 110 is to the bottom-right of the center.
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Andromeda Galaxy with DESI Overlay.
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Superimposing picture showing sizes of the Moon and the Andromeda Galaxy as observed from Earth. Because the galaxy is not very bright, its size is not evident.
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See also
In Spanish: Galaxia de Andrómeda para niños
