M31
Thursday, August 21st, 2008M31 OR Andromeda Galaxy
Messier 31 (M31, NGC 224) is the famous Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large neighbor galaxy .
The Andromeda Galaxy is aspiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years away .
The Andromeda Galaxy is notable for being one of the brightest Messier objects, making it easily visible to the naked eye even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution.
The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Sun at about 300 kilometers per second (186 miles/sec) .
the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are approaching one another at a speed of 100 to 140 kilometers per second (62–87 miles/sec.).
The impact is predicted to occur in about 2.5 billion years. In that case the two galaxies (Milky way and M31) will likely merge to form a giant elliptical galaxy.
