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Posted: **13 Jun 2006, 21:06**

Andromeda Adrift in Sea of Dust in New NASA Image
For Release: June 5, 2006

The Andromeda galaxy, named for the mythological princess who almost fell prey to a sea monster, appears tranquil in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The mesmerizing infrared mosaic shows red waves of dust over a blue sea of stars.

"What's really interesting about this view is the contrast between the galaxy's smooth, flat disk of old stars and its bumpy waves of dust heated by young stars.

Link

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/re ... ease.shtml

Posted: **14 Jun 2006, 11:38**

Absolutely fascinating! Shows you just how small, we really are.

Posted: **16 Jun 2006, 16:54**

The Andromeda galaxy, also known by astronomers as Messier 31, is located 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way, making it the ideal specimen for carefully examining the nature of galaxies. On a clear, dark night, the galaxy can be spotted with the naked eye as a fuzzy blob.

Andromeda spans about 260,000 light-years, which means that a light beam would take 260,000 years to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other. By comparison, the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across.

So what I gather from this is that Andromeda is over 2 Â½ times bigger than our own Milky Way Galaxy which houses over a 100 Billion stars of itâ€™s own. If thatâ€™s so than Iâ€™m felling very small at this point.

Lets see , Seeing how itâ€™s located 2.5 million light years away , at Warp 9 the Borg would be here in about um , 2.5 million divided by 9 = 277 777.778

Whew , okay thatâ€™s a relief. Weâ€™ll be ready for them by than , and I wont even be around to see it.

PS. Thanks Google for the calculator thingy.