Andromeda reaches out to touch Milky Way

Gaseous halo extends 1 million light-years from neighboring galaxy’s spiral disk

Andromeda galaxy

LIVING IN A BUBBLE  The Andromeda galaxy, the closest spiral to the Milky Way, is embedded in a tenuous bubble of gas that extends halfway to our galaxy.

Adam Evans/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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The spiral disk of the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way’s neighbor, is just a tiny part of a much larger entity.