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Andromeda Galaxy

[General] [Similarities to the Milky Way]

General
The most distant object that can be seen with the naked eye is the Andromeda galaxy. At 2.2 million light-years it is the closest major galaxy. The Andromeda galaxy has twice the mass of our galaxy. It has a double nucleus. There are two possible reasons for this. One is that it ate another galaxy and all that remains is it's nucleus. Another possibility is that there is only one nucleus with a line of dust running through the center of a wide nucleus, giving the appearance on two nuclei. andromeda galaxy

 

Similarities to the Milky Way
The Andromeda galaxy is similar to our galaxy in many ways. First and foremost, we are both spiral galaxies. Its shape is very similar to our galaxy. The age difference between are galaxies is very small. The Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy also contain similar types of object, such as stars and nebulae. The size of Andromeda is about the size of our galaxy. It too, is believed to have a black hole in the middle.

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[General] [Similarities to the Milky Way]



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