Perched near the waist of the ill-fated princess Andromeda lies a majestic spiral galaxy. Visible to the naked eye under moonless, dark skies, the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the closest galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy (the Large Magellanic Cloudand Small Magellanic Cloud are among those of the Local Group that are even closer). It is home to an estimated 1 trillion stars and is substantially larger than the Milky Way.
The Andromeda Galaxy is one of the few galaxies that is approaching rather than receding from our galaxy, at about 100 kilometers per second. It is expected to eventually collide with the Milky Way in a few billion years, likely merging into one, larger elliptical galaxy.
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