The Astrology of Space - Matrix Software

The Astrology of Space
Maffei do not contribute to the location of the
barycenter of our Local Group but dominate the small
cluster of galaxies mentioned above, not far from us.
Perhaps the most important of all the external
systems or galaxies is the Great Nebula (as it was at
first, called) in Andromeda (NGC 224), the
Andromeda galaxy. Aside from being the only supergiant
spiral galaxy that is distinctly visible to the naked
eye, M.31 (as the Andromeda galaxy is most often
called) is bound to our own galaxy through mutual
gravitational attraction. The Milky Way and M31 are in
a bound orbit and share a center of mass that is
located about two-thirds of the distance between the
two galaxies, in a line toward the direction of M31. In
other words, our own galaxy and the one in
Andromeda dominate the local group of galaxies. M31
is considerably larger than our own, complete with a
similar spiral structure and a well-defined semi-stellar
nucleus.
Andromeda contains all of the stellar mater a we
would expect to find in a normal super-giant spiral:
star clouds, globular clusters, open clusters and
clouds of nebulosity. Over forty Cepheid variables,
180 stellar associations, many novae have been
discovered. The famous supernova of 1885, S.
Andromeda, occurred very close to the nuclear region
of M31. This particular supernova reached an
absolute magnitude of about -14.0 (100 million Suns),
which is brighter than many entire galaxies!
The Andromeda galaxy is a super-giant spiral with an
integrated magnitude of V = 3.48 (apparent). Adopting
an apparent distance modulus of (m-M) sub-v = 24.5
gives an absolute magnitude M sub-v = -21.0, which
makes M31 the brightest member of the local group.
M31 covers an area of 75'x245' on the sky. At an
257