Read Expanded Glossary and Notes - Compendium to the Sequetus Series Page 7
The Small Magellan Galaxy.
(Galaxy photos from Wikipedia)
Andromeda Galaxy: This has about a trillion stars and is 2.5 million light years from the Milky Way. It is the largest spiral galaxy in the Local Group of galaxies. The Milky Way has 200 – 400 billion stars by comparison. It is visible to the naked eye on cloudless nights from Earth. It appears more than six times as wide as the full moon when photographed through a large telescope, though only the brighter region is available to the naked eye.
Andromeda Galaxy
IC 1613 Galaxy: This is a dwarf galaxy, approximately 2.3 million light years distant. It is rarely seen by amateur astronomers due to its low surface brightness. It is a bar-shaped structure, meaning it has an axis, and itsstellar population is quite old, perhaps 7 billion years. It has a strong red giant branch and red clump populations.
Triangulum Galaxy: This galaxy is a spiral galaxy, around 3 million light years away. It is one of the most distant permanent objects, which is available to be seen with the naked eye. It has about 40 billion stars, and a diameter of 50,000 light years. It may be gravitationally bound to the Andromeda Galaxy. The nucleus doesn’t appear to contain a supermassive black hole.