ISLAND IN THE SKY

NASA has an archive of pictures taken, one per day, of objects in the sky ranging from stars, galaxies, comets. sunsets and storm cells. This is the galaxy known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda.

The M is for Charles Messier, a French astronomer whose primary goal was discovering comets. Along the way he spoted other objects that looked like they might be comets but didn't act like comets. Basically what could be seen either by the naked eye or with the telescopes available at the time. It wasn't until years, if not decades, later that we realized that many of these objects were not in our home galaxy. This shot is composed of a mosaic of shots taken over a ninety hour period.

Approximately two million light years away astronomers believe our Milky Way looks much like M31.