This image of the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, is Jeffrey Mishlove’s very first photograph of a deep space object. This spiral galaxy, located about 2 million light years away, is the companion to our Milky Way. This image is a composite of 172 individual, 5 second exposures – for a total exposure time of just over 14 minutes. You can also see two satellite galaxies in this image. The diameter of Andromeda is about 152,000 light years making it somewhat larger than the Milky Way. Jeffrey made this image with a 4″ refracting telescope.
The image below shows stars in the inner halo of the Andromeda galaxy, which can be thought of as a sister galaxy to our own Milky Way. The blue colored stars are moving toward us, while the red are moving away. Astronomers suggest that this configuration is the result of a collision between Andromeda and another galaxy that took place about two billion years ago. A similar collision is believed to have taken place in the Milky Way galaxy about 8-10 billion years ago. This is how galaxies grow.
Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/AURA/NSF/E. Slawik/D. de Martin/M. Zamani
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