Optical photograph of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) & its dwarf elliptical satellite galaxy M32 (NGC 221, bright patch at bottom centre). Androm

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Optical photograph of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) & its dwarf elliptical satellite galaxy M32 (NGC 221, bright patch at bottom centre). Andromeda is a spiral galaxy some million light years from our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It is 170,000 light years across & is the largest of the nearby galaxies, being visible as a faint patch with the naked eye. Together with the Milky Way, Andromeda is one of the largest & most important members of the Local Group of galaxies. The track of an Earth-orbiting satellite is seen running down the left hand side of the image.

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Size: 3780px × 4723px
Photo credit: © Science Photo Library / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 221, 224, andromeda, astronomy, cosmology, elliptical, galactic, galaxy, m31, m32, ngc, science, spiral