How Far Away Is Andromeda And The Local Group

David Butler - Published on Aug 18, 2013

In this segment of our "How far away is it" video book, we cover the Andromeda galaxy along with our local group of galaxies, including some of the dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way.

We begin with Edwin Hubble's discovery of a Cepheid variable star in what was thought to be a Milky Way nebula.

The star was V1 and it changed the history of astronomy. We cover the black hole at the center of Andromeda, highlight the size of this beautiful galaxy with its trillion stars, and point out what was going on here on our planet when the light we see left Andromeda on its journey into our telescopes.

Next we identify the local group of galaxies including: Triangulum with its great star birth H II region NGC 604; irregular galaxy NGC 6822 with its unique Hubble V H II region; the recently discovered galaxy IC 10; nearly edge on galaxy NGC 3109; and Sextans A.

Then we focus on the two main galaxies orbiting the Milky Way -- the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud. Then we take a look at some of the amazing nebula within these two dwarf galaxies including: Supernova Remnant N 63A, SN 0509-67.5, the Tarantula Nebula, 30 Doradus, Hodge 301, the Double Bubble, LH 95, NGC 2074, NGC 602, and NGC 346.

We conclude with a review of the galaxies we covered marked on a map of the Local Group.