APOD 1.5

The picture above was take in near Monte Conero, Italy on the Adriatic Sea. In the expansive sky there are boundless amounts of stars, however, the one star that I will be focusing on is the fuzzy-looking star just left of the top center of the picture.

That one fuzzy star is the only star in our whole entire sky that is outside our galaxy.

Let me dwell on this a little more. A galaxy is a system of which there are millions of billions of stars and solar systems such as our Sun and the planets that circle it. Every star that we see in the sky are stars and formations that are within our galaxy which is 100,000 lightyears long.

This fuzzy star, however, is another galaxy called the Andromeda Galaxy that is 2.5 million light years away! What's more is that the average person can see this star without the help of binoculars.

This galaxy is called the Andromeda Galaxy because of its closeness to the constellation of Andromeda.

From this picture, the constellation Andromeda is also visible. The 4 prominent stars underneath the Andromeda Galaxy are part of that constellation.

It is just amazing how one is able to see the expanse of space and that we are looking at billions of stars that continue to amaze so many.