The thing about these desk calendars is they don't give you room to expand on anything. My notes today said it turns out the problem with JZ's tires was tread separation. That's thrilling. It says we went to a James Bond movie. I don't recollect which. And somehow, a bunch of beach sand got tracked into my Cadillac. But hey, it was a Sunday.
Here is Andromeda, a galaxy 2.6 times the size of our own. You can just make it out with the naked eye, because I could when I was a kid. It is unknown how the galaxy came to have two nucleii. (If it was a galactic collision, there would be distortion of the spiral shape.) But eventually, there is a good chance it will hit our galaxy. It is one of the few space objects heading our way and it is moving 68 miles per second.
No need to worry, by the time that happens, Earth will be long dead and gone. Actually, the two galaxies would pass through each other with minimal disturbance. That's how sparse things are in outer space. If you want to see the best photos ever taken (Hubble) of Andromeda, try this link. Make sure your equipment can handle such a huge file and give it time to download.
The galaxy appears surrounded by stars, but all those starts are in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. These have been compared to looking through a windshield full of raindrops, I like that analogy. In fact, the vast cosmos out to Andromeda is mostly empty space. Here is an lower-res picture of Andromeda.
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