I know Andromeda Galaxy is one of the closest galaxies to our Milky Way, but there are photographs showing it to be surrounded by smaller bodies. Are there any that are closer, or are they all farther away. I am guessing that the smaller looking galaxies are all farther away, but there is a wide variety of sizes. What distance range do we see surrounding Andromeda Galaxy.
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Andomeda galaxy has two very notable satellite galaxies, M32 and M110. These are both dwarf elliptical galaxies, and are approximately the same distance from us as Andromeda galaxy. There are more satellite galaxies of the Andromeda galaxy, but they are not easily seen
There are other background objects, galaxies that are roughly in the same line of sight as Andromeda, simply because galaxies are everywhere! You can't see galaxies that are exactly in line with the thicker parts of Andromeda, because the dust and stars block them out. You can see background galaxies which are very much more distant than the Andromeda galaxy. These are at all distances back as far as can be seen.
However, most of the objects that appear close to Andromeda in the sky are stars in our own galaxy. These are much closer than Andromeda.
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2$\begingroup$ There are also about 460 globular star clusters orbiting the Andomeda Galaxy which can be detected with large telescopes. $\endgroup$ Jan 11, 2022 at 18:52