M31, the Andromeda galaxy, is our nearest galactic neighbour at a distance of only 2.3 million light years.   There are two other galaxies clearly visible in this image acquired by Prof. Greg Parker at the New Forest Observatory, namely M32 the dwarf elliptical galaxy lying close to the core region of M31, and M110 the elliptical galaxy lying a little further away from M31.  All three galaxies are at a distance around 2.3 million light years away from our own Milky Way.

Noel Carboni (Florida, U.S.A.) has processed this image in a rather unique way as you can see.  He has removed all the Milky Way stars from the image and left only those stars known to be associated with the M31 region.  The result is a view of M31 as might be seen by a spaceship approaching the galaxy from a region close by.

M31 has been known since antiquity since it can be seen as a faint fuzzy ball of light using the naked eye in reasonably dark-sky areas.

In 2009 the world celebrates the International Year of Astronomy to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to study the night sky. 2009 is also the anniversary of many other important dates in the history of science, such as the publishing of Kepler's Astronomia Nova, Huygens' Systema Saturnium, and the first moon landing.

For this celebration astronomers around the world are inviting people like you, and your friends and family, to look up in wonder at the night sky, and to seek out answers to some of life's biggest questions.

This website will provide everything you need to know about what is happening in the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in the UK, making the Universe yours to discover!

You can download different versions of the trailer here