                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 June 25

                         Andromeda in a Single Shot
       Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)

   Explanation: How far can you see? The Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million
   light years away, is the most distant object easily seen by the unaided
   eye. Other denizens of the night sky, like stars, clusters, and
   nebulae, are typically hundreds to thousands of light-years distant.
   That's far beyond the Solar System but well within our own Milky Way
   Galaxy. Also known as M31, the external galaxy poses directly above a
   chimney in this well-planned deep night skyscape from an old mine in
   southern Portugal. The image was captured in a single exposure tracking
   the sky, so the foreground is slightly blurred by the camera's motion
   while Andromeda itself looms large. The galaxy's brighter central
   region, normally all that's visible to the naked-eye, can be seen
   extending to spiral arms with fainter outer reaches spanning over 4
   full moons across the sky. Of course in only 5 billion years or so, the
   stars of Andromeda could span the entire night sky as the Andromeda
   Galaxy merges with the Milky Way.

                    Tomorrow's picture: pixels in the Sun
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

