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Астронет: Астрономическая картинка дня Андромеда над Патагонией http://www.variable-stars.ru/db/msg/1708291/eng |
Credit & Copyright: Gerardo Ferrarino
Explanation:
How far can you see?
The Andromeda Galaxy
at 2.5 million light years away is the most distant object
easily seen with your unaided
eye.
Most other apparent denizens of the night sky --
stars, clusters, and nebulae --
typically range from a few hundred to a few thousand
light-years away and lie well within our own
Milky Way Galaxy.
Given its distance, light from
Andromeda
is likely also the
oldest light that you can see.
Also known as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy dominates the center of the featured
zoomed image,
taken from the
dunes of Bahцa Creek,
Patagonia, in southern
Argentina.
The image is a combination of 45 background images with one foreground image --
all taken with the same camera and from the same location within 90 minutes.
M110, a
satellite galaxy of Andromenda is visible just below and to the left of M31's
core.
As cool
as it may be to see this neighboring galaxy to our Milky Way with your own eyes,
long duration camera exposures
can pick up many faint and breathtaking details.
Recent data indicates that
our Milky Way Galaxy
will collide and combine with the
similarly-sized Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.