7 stunning images of Andromeda Galaxy captured by NASA

Andromeda, also known as Messier 31 (M31), is a spiral galaxy located about 2.5 million light years away. It is thought that the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide several billion years from now.

At approximately 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda galaxy, or M31, is our Milky Way’s largest galactic neighbor. The entire galaxy spans 260,000 light-years across – a distance so large, it took 11 different image segments stitched together to produce this view of the galaxy next door.

The black holes located in both galaxies will then reside in the large, elliptical galaxy that results from this merger.

Andromeda is visible to the naked eye but only when viewed in dark skies and ideally on a moonless night. In many places, it is visible the entire year for at least part of the night but is highest in the sky and therefore easiest to spot in August and September,

There are several ways to find Andromeda. One of the easiest is to locate the constellation Cassiopeia, which forms a kind of M or W shape in the sky. The lowest point of the W is the star Schedar, which points directly at Andromeda.

When observed in visible light, Andromeda’s rings look more like spiral arms. The ultraviolet view shows that these arms more closely resemble the ring-like structure previously observed in infrared wavelengths with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

The Andromeda constellation is one of the 88 modern constellations and should not be confused with our neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda constellation is home to the pictured galaxy known as NGC 7640. This image is captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope