images

Center of the Andromeda galaxy

by

R.Gendler/Novapix

Reference

a-gax02-24015

Date

2006-09-07

Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. Much about M31 remains unknown, including how the center acquired two nuclei.