I don't know about other posts but this one I think is correct (as far as I can tell). I too am greatly annoyed at all the AI-generated clickbait garbage - especially because they bury the actually interesting bits of information.
I believe you are (hopefully not purposely) misunderstanding what this article is saying. The core/spiral would not be that large, the entire galaxy would be, but that image is just the core (without the "arms") which if included, would make the spiral look absolutely tiny.
I believe you are (hopefully not purposely) misunderstanding what this article is saying. The core/spiral would not be that large, the entire galaxy would be, but that image is just the core (without the "arms") which if included, would make the spiral look absolutely tiny.
That image is the whole galaxy, including the arms as well as the core.
What Plait is saying in the article is that when you look at Andromeda through a small telescope, all you see is the core. He's not saying this picture is just the core.
It means just what it says. They each take up a certain amount of area in the sky (angular size). The moon's angular size is about half a degree and Andromeda's length is about three degrees.
Isn't it way too far away at the moment for that to be true? We may get that in the far future but you can see the Andromeda galaxy as a small blur with not-so-powerful telescopes right now
No, this is a pretty accurate representation of its size. It covers about 3 degrees of arc, and the moon about half a degree, so it's about six moon-widths.
I do, but with a small telescope you can only see the galaxy's core, which is much smaller. The image shows the whole thing including the spiral arms, which is what covers around 3 degrees.
It is in a group of dozens of galaxies within ~10million light years called the Local Group. We'll start colliding with M31 in a good couple (4-5) billions of years if the calculations are right.
Galaxies have individual velocities too. The expansion of the universe only becomes dominant on scales ot tens of millions of light years. Galaxies colliding with each other is quite common.
My guess, is gravity ie attraction between the two galaxies is greater than the force pulling them apart. It's not that weird, just consider we have no similar problems (or I haven't heard about them) with Earth not flying away from the other planets and the Sun.
The universe is expanding in all directions...like everything away from everything else. The rate for close things is low. Andromeda is in our galactic cluster, and not so far that expansion matters. Hence, we know we are closing in, and know how long it'll take to close the distance.
Now, a galaxy that is 6 billion light years away will not collide with us. It is, for one thing, in another galactic cluster, maybe even another supercluster. Eventually, yes, expansion will carry it out of view, but by that time the sun will be long-dead, having swallowed Earth as it died.
We should turn off every light in the nation for at least one hour every month at least to give people the view of the night sky that we deserve. As somebody who loves the sky, it's just sad seeing grey light polluted clouds in the place of stars.
With such a wide and suggestive object constantly available to public sight, I wonder what the religious, cultural and scientific implications would have been in that case...
Asked Chat GPT to check on this. Unless it is hallucinating. it does confirm that though much dimmer, Andromeda does indeed have a larger angular size in the sky relative to the moon.
With a new LED lights they have in our neighborhood and town we can no longer see the stars 😞 I mean I'm all for saving power but do they have to be so doggone bright?
Wow. That would be amazing...of course then we would probably just take it for granted...which is kinda nice that it isn't, so we get to cherish all the more in your post.
I agree! I've read that if we could see the full extent of the Andromeda Galaxy, it would be 6 times larger than the moon!
I would love to get a real astonomy camera. I only have my pixel cellphone. I did catch a smudge of the center of Andromeda with it, and I got so excited to see the smudge!
I do have a 10mega pixel digital camera with a 200mm telephoto lens and if I put it on my tripod I can get some cool pics of the moon. But, if this was in the sky it would be a perfect photo to hang on my wall.
you do realize Mark, that any picture on your digital camera/ cellphone can be sent/taken to a photo shop to be printed as a hard copy, and even enlarged, etc.
I was wrong. I'm very sorry for being so flippant without doing my due diligence. I've posted a public retraction and apologized to OP. Thank you for everyone who has (gently) corrected me. It's nice to be in a place where even when you're acting a fool, people tell you about it nicely lol.
I believe you are (hopefully not purposely) misunderstanding what this article is saying. The core/spiral would not be that large, the entire galaxy would be, but that image is just the core (without the "arms") which if included, would make the spiral look absolutely tiny.
As our continuing discussion continued, it remains uncertain that my take on Plait saying the image is 3° or something different, meaning the OP image could be considered inaccurate. Notably, Plait himself has blocked the OP's feed, supporting it being generally crap. This post, howevs...yeah.
I believe you are (hopefully not purposely) misunderstanding what this article is saying. The core/spiral would not be that large, the entire galaxy would be, but that image is just the core (without the "arms") which if included, would make the spiral look absolutely tiny.
Is this real?
The best sky I ever so was by the Cameros Mountains. I was young, I could see a sky full of stars 🌟 and planets and I got scared! I felt so minuscule!
As it gets closer it will get brighter, but the very closest galaxy is the milky way (we are in it) - so I would not expect it to become much brighter than that...
There's a simulation doing the rounds on various youtube channels that make it seem like it will get pretty bright after it merges with our galaxy. brighter than a full moon, at least. Seems like as it approaches it will look like the Southern Hemisphere view of the galactic centre (the "Milky Way")
No, no, no stop doing this.
This would only happen if andromeda were about 1.5 million light years closer. Or at least a lot closer.
And if that happened its gravity would be really messing with us in more ways than being brighter.
How about "this is UY Scuti at the same distance as the moon" and other bullshit science shit. This doesn't help people appreciate science. Get a clue.
This is dead on accurate. We live in an amazing universe. It is only since the last 100 years or so we started to learn a lot more details about the Universe.
Huh... It is the closest galaxy some 2-3 millions light years away and it's a good sized one at 200k light years across, so it is 10-15 times further away than its size. The moon is about 100 times smaller than its distance, so yeah, the Andromeda could look ~6 times the size of the Moon. Cool!
It’s still barrelling straight towards us, even though it looks like it is about to hit us right now if it were brighter in the sky, it’s still a mad 3 billion years away. The universe is so vast I don’t think we could ever leave our galaxy in a million billion years 😭
I believe you are (hopefully not purposely) misunderstanding what this article is saying. The core/spiral would not be that large, the entire galaxy would be, but that image is just the core (without the "arms") which if included, would make the spiral look absolutely tiny.
I believe you are (hopefully not purposely) misunderstanding what this article is saying. The core/spiral would not be that large, the entire galaxy would be, but that image is just the core (without the "arms") which if included, would make the spiral look absolutely tiny.
Not sure I am seeing what you're seeing. I see the arms in the OP's illustration, from a simple claim that if the entirety of Andromeda were brighter that would be its size in the sky. From the Bad Astronomer article comes the same view. No other claims...just "imagine if Andromeda were brighter!
Yeah no...in that paragraph he's saying the image is "about right". Then he says you can see the galaxy with binos...which yields just the core. The next paragraph talks about the 3° being "roughly what’s shown in the picture." We could ask @philplait.bsky.social to weigh in, I guess.
Basically, as with Plait's 2014 article, boiling down to "imagine if the whole thing were brighter...this is what you would see!" No claim that it _is_ that bright, just presenting a what-if.
Comments
What Plait is saying in the article is that when you look at Andromeda through a small telescope, all you see is the core. He's not saying this picture is just the core.
A source: https://calvin.edu/observatory/astrophotography/galaxies/the-andromeda-galaxy
Or find the brightness switch to turn it up, if that's easier.
I would love to get a real astonomy camera. I only have my pixel cellphone. I did catch a smudge of the center of Andromeda with it, and I got so excited to see the smudge!
The best sky I ever so was by the Cameros Mountains. I was young, I could see a sky full of stars 🌟 and planets and I got scared! I felt so minuscule!
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This would only happen if andromeda were about 1.5 million light years closer. Or at least a lot closer.
And if that happened its gravity would be really messing with us in more ways than being brighter.
M31/Andromeda galaxy is more than 3 degrees across in apparent size. The Sun and moon are about 1/2 degree in apparent size.
It's easy to forget how NEAR Andromeda is because of its faintness. And it's the closest LARGE galaxy.
And think! There are at least BILLIONS of galaxies in the universe.
😎♥✝🇺🇸💯
And this is
Samantha Andromeda Spencer’s puppy butt.
All Spencer Girls in my family have the initials SAS. Even the furry ones. 🥰
"However, that’s just the core, the nucleus, of Andromeda. Like the Milky Way, Andromeda has vast spiral arms that extend well out from the core."
Unfortunately the AI stuff is going nuts and I did not vet this one properly.