The Andromeda Galaxy, the elder sister of the Milky Way: a wide field image.
The Andromeda Galaxy, known as Messier 31 (M31) and NGC 224, is one of the most fascinating and studied celestial objects in the night sky. Here we present one of our most spectacular wide field images ever.
The Andromeda Galaxy (M 31, NGC 224), its M 32 and M 110 satellites and the stars around it.
Located at a distance of about 2.5 million light-years, Messier 31 represents the great cosmic neighbor of the Milky Way — its elder sister — and is the most massive member of the Local Group, a collection of over thirty gravitationally bound galaxies.
Visible even to the naked eye in the constellation Andromeda during the clearest, darkest nights, M 31 appears as a faint elongated patch: it is the most distant object reachable without the use of optical instruments.
Yet behind that pale glow lies a majestic structure: an immense spiral with a bright core, two main arms filled with young stars, star-forming regions, and vast dark dust lanes that outline its profile. The central bulge likely hosts a supermassive black hole.
One of the most fascinating aspects of M 31 is its relative motion with respect to our galaxy: it is approaching us at about 110 km/s. Numerical simulations indicate that in about 5 billion years, Andromeda and the Milky Way will “collide,” giving birth to a new cosmic entity.
Messier 31 has dozens of satellite companions, including the well-known M 32 and M 110, two dwarf elliptical galaxies that orbit around it. These gravitational interactions have shaped M 31’s evolutionary history, leaving behind features such as stellar streams and luminous arcs—probable traces of smaller galaxies absorbed in the past.
From a historical point of view, M 31 has been crucial for understanding the universe, helping us grasp its true structure and dimensions.
This image was obtained using the Samyang 135+Paramount ME+ZWO ASI 6200MC Pro robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project facility in Manciano, Italy, under the purest dark skies of continental Italy.
In addition to the main subject, M 31, its two major satellites M 32 and M 110 can be seen.
A celestial scene of extraordinary depth: for example, the elegant blue star just on the right of M 31 is ν Andromedae and lies only about 700 light-years away, while the galaxy—as mentioned—is more than 2.5 million: seeing them “close” in mere perspective.
On the bottom left, there is a very ruby star, among the reddest ones in the sky. It is VX Andromedae, a carbon-rich variable star, showing the typical, extreme red hue of those objects.
Low-res image, with labels.
We invite you to contemplate this patch of sky, undoubtedly among the most evocative ones: as you let your gaze wander from one star to another, from a diamond to a ruby, you can truly lose yourself in the infinite.
Godsped!
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