Image Source The Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years (distance traveled by light in one year) from Earth. It is also the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way (our galaxy). It is so named because it appears in the constellation of Andromeda.
There are about 1 trillion stars in the galaxy, compared to that of 200 to 400 million in the Milky Way. The size in diameter is estimated to be around 220 kilo-light-years. The Andromeda Galaxy's mass is approximately 1.76 times that of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Galaxy was formed roughly 10 billion years ago from the collision and merger of smaller galaxies.
The Andromeda Galaxy has satellite galaxies consisting of 14 dwarf galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy has 59 satellite galaxies in the range of (1.4 million light-years).
The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching our Milky Way at a speed of about 110 km/s or 68 miles per sec. In about 4 billion years the Andromeda Galaxy is expected to collide directly with the Milky Way Galaxy. The galaxies are likely to merge to form an elliptical galaxy or a large disc galaxy. Such mergers of galaxies are frequent among galaxies in the galaxy groups. The destiny of our Solar System and Earth is currently unknown.
The Andromeda Galaxy is bright enough to be visible with the naked eye. With the use of Binoculars, the two brightest satellite galaxies (M32 and M110) of Andromeda can also be seen. With an amateur telescope, Andromeda's disk can be seen along with some of its brightest globular clusters and the large star cloud NGC 206. From the Northern Hemisphere, Andromeda is best seen during autumn nights and from the Southern Hemisphere in the spring.
Source: Wikipedia
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