Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Triangulum (Tri)  ·  Contains:  M 33  ·  NGC 595  ·  NGC 598  ·  NGC 604  ·  Triangulum Galaxy  ·  Triangulum Pinwheel
Triangulum Galaxy - 11/7/2010, AstroPoverty
Triangulum Galaxy - 11/7/2010
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Triangulum Galaxy - 11/7/2010

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Description

This is a picture of the Triangulum Galaxy (Messier Object 33). This galaxy is about 3 million light years away. The light you are looking at left this galaxy about 500,000 years prior to the existence of the first known mammal. It belongs to a group of galaxies called the "Local Group" (because the Milky Way is also in it). This group consists of about 30 galaxies and this galaxy is the third largest (just behind Andromeda and the Milky Way). The Triangulum Galaxy contains about 35 billion stars (our own Milky way contains 300 billion starts and Andromeda contains 1000 billion stars). Andromeda is so massive that this galaxy may be gravitationally bound to it (it may actually orbit Andromeda). Triangulum is about 50,000 light years across (meaning it takes light 50,000 years to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other).

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Triangulum Galaxy - 11/7/2010, AstroPoverty