Andromeda Galaxy Distance From Milky Way: Here's What You Need To Know!
Initially, astronomers believed that our Milky Way Galaxy included the whole universe.
The Milky Way is a barred galaxy with a diameter of 100,000–200,000 light-years and an estimated visual diameter of 100,000–200,000 light-years. According to recent calculations, a dark matter disc including some visible stars might have a diameter of about two million light-years.
The Milky Way has multiple satellite galaxies and is a member of the Local Group, which is part of the Virgo Supercluster, which is part of the Laniakea Supercluster.
The name Milky Way is derived from the Greek term 'galaktikos kyklos,' which means 'milky circle'. The Milky Way seems to be a band from Earth because its disk-shaped structure is seen as it is visible from within.
Galileo Galilei used his telescope for the very first time in 1610 to resolve a band of light into individual stars. Until the early '20s, most astronomers believed that the Milky Way contained all of the stars in the universe.
Observers using telescopes to search for comets had been seeing 'nebulae' for some time, a name that referred to any blurry night-sky object that wasn't a comet.
Spiral nebulae, like Andromeda, were named from their spiral shapes. The narrative began in the early 1900s when astronomer Vesto Slipher computed Andromeda's radial velocity or the rate at which the galaxy was traveling toward or away from Earth. Slipher accomplished this by spotting a telltale stretching or compression in the light from Andromeda as it approached Earth.
The Andromeda Galaxy was first discovered in 964 AD when a Persian astronomer called Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi published a book on 'Fixed Stars.' He mentioned Andromeda in it and the location of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a much smaller satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
The Andromeda Galaxy was once thought to be a 'small cloud' in the sky. Sir William Huggins, an English astronomer, used a prism to split apart and examine the many hues of light from several nebulae in 1864. Huggins discovered that the light spectra of M31 differed significantly from those of the other nebulae when he did so.
The Andromeda Galaxy holds one trillion stars, according to several studies. It has a diameter of almost 200,000 light-years. That's a lot bigger than the Milky Way, which is now believed to be 150,000 light-years across.
Isaac Roberts captured the first image of Andromeda in 1887, revealing its spiral structure. Even back then, Andromeda was thought to be a nearby nebula.
Heber Curtis discovered a nova in Andromeda in 1917. He uncovered several additional novae while combing through the photographic records and determined that they were considerably fainter in Andromeda than elsewhere in the Milky Way.
Astronomers didn't figure out how to break the Andromeda spiral nebula down and locate individual stars until the 20th century. This finding sparked a debate over if the Andromeda spiral nebula and the other spiral nebulae are part of the Milky Way or not.
Edwin Hubble ultimately put the matter to rest in the '20s when he utilized Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy to prove that there are island universes beyond the Milky Way's limits.
If you like what you have found out so far, read on to find out more answers to questions like: will the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies collide someday? How far away is Andromeda Galaxy from the Milky Way Galaxy? How much bigger is Andromeda than the Milky Way? Is the Andromeda Galaxy further than the Milky Way?
How far away is the Andromeda Galaxy, and how can you see it? What is the largest galaxy in the universe? Will we ever visit Andromeda? And much more.
