                        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 November 6

                       The Galaxy Between Two Friends
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Lefranc

   Explanation: On an August night two friends enjoyed this view after a
   day's hike on the Plateau d'Emparis in the French Alps. At 2400 meters
   altitude the sky was clear. Light from a setting moon illuminates the
   foreground captured in the simple vertical panorama of images. Along
   the plane of our Milky Way galaxy stars of Cassiopeia and Perseus shine
   along the panorama's left edge. But seen as a faint cloud with a
   brighter core, the Andromeda galaxy, stands directly above the two
   friends in the night. The nearest large spiral galaxy, Andromeda is
   about 2.5 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Adding
   to the evening's shared extragalactic perspective, the fainter fuzzy
   spot in the sky right between them is M33, also known as the Triangulum
   galaxy. Third largest in the local galaxy group, after Andromeda and
   Milky Way, the Triangulum galaxy is about 3 million light-years
   distant. On that night, the two friends stood about 3 light-nanoseconds
   apart.

                    Tomorrow's picture: cosmic spirograph
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

