THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY

What Am I ? The Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31,

M31 or NGC 224) is a spiral galaxy about 2.5 million light years from Earth.

When Was I Made? According to astronomers, Andromeda

was formed out of the collision of two smaller galaxies 5-9 billion years ago

Where Can You Find Me? Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy

to the Milky Way, but not the closest overall

The Andromeda galaxy is in the Andromeda constellation, named after the mythological princess, Andromeda

The Andromeda Galaxy

How Big Am I ? Andromeda is the largest galaxy of the

Local group, which has the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies

Andromeda is estimated to be to be 7.1x10 solar masses, and has about 1 trillion stars, more than in the Milky Way.

The Local Group

Can You See Me? With an apparent magnitude ( measure

of brightness) of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is known to be one of the brightest Messier objects (a set of astronomical objects), making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights

It appears more than six times as wide as the full Moon when photographed through a large telescope, only the bright centre is visible to the naked eye ,or when viewed using binoculars or a small telescope

Collision With The Milky Way The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the

Milky Way at about 100 to 140 km per second ,400 light years every million years, making it one of the few blue-shifted galaxies.

The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are expected to collide in about 4.5 billion years. A likely result of the collision is that the galaxies will combine to form a giant elliptical (egg shaped) galaxy.

Collision With The Milky Way The fate of the Earth and the Solar

system in the collision are currently unknown. If the galaxies do not combine, there is a small chance that the Solar System could be forced away from the Milky Way or join Andromeda

NGC 2207 and IC 2163 are an example of what a collision of galaxies looks like

My sources Google images Wikipedia http://

www.historyoftheuniverse.com/andromed.html

http://scienceray.com/astronomy/great-facts-about-the-andromeda-galaxy/

http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/astronomy-terms/andromeda-galaxy-info.htm