Questions for andromeda galaxy to the professors out there?

> When Andromeda galaxy was found.. How far was it compare to the today when looking at it on a giant telescope ?

Pretty much at the same distance. The Galaxy is at such a large distance and it's motion is so small that it takes many millions of years for any true motion to be detected either towards or away from us. We can measure it's speed towards us as 300 km/s, but the galaxy is 24,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers away. That's like trying to figure out if a car that is 1 km away from you is any closer if it is only moving 0.000000000025 millimeters per second.

> Is Andromeda galaxy traveling faster like a comet or faster then a rocket ?

Comets' speeds can vary drastically. A good example is Halley's Comet. At it's farthest point from the sun it is only traveling at less than 1 km/s. As it approaches Earth, it can reach speeds of about 70 km/s. However, I don't think any comets reach the speed of 300 km/s that Andromeda is currently moving towards us with. Rockets certainly never reach those speeds. In order for a rocket to escape Earth, it must reach a minimum speed of 11.2 km/s, certainly much slower than 300 km/s. The fastest man made objects are probably the voyager and pioneer probes. Currently Voyager 1 is traveling out of our solar system at roughly 17 km/s - again nowhere close to 300 km/s. In fact nothing in our solar system even comes close to the speed that Andromeda is moving.

> When andromeda galaxy arrives closer to us.. lets say in 1 million years from now. How far will andromeda galaxy would look like in our night sky ?

One million years is not nearly long enough to notice a large change in size. Like I said, it is only moving at 300 km/s, but it is 24 billion billion billion km away. It will take at least a billion or two years before it becomes seriously notable in our night sky. Currently it is roughly the area of 6 moons in our night sky - although only the brightest portions of the galaxy can be seen with the naked eye. In a billion years, it will have become massive. In that time it will covered 2/5ths of the current distance between us and appear roughly 1.7 times larger - or in other words, it will cover the size of about 10 moons in our night sky. However the largest change will be in it's brightness. Can you imagine an object as bright as the brightest stars and 10 times the size of the moon in our sky?

> as andromeda galaxy gets closer and closer.. How on earth will humans be able to see real time andromeda galaxy ?

Assuming we still exist and are observing Andromeda from Earth, we'll see it in the same way. Only because it is closer, we will not see it as far in the past as we do now. Currently we see it as it was 2.5 million years ago. In a billion years we'll see it as if it is 1.5 million years older than it actually is.

> is it just going to show up without notice ?

Certainly not. We'll know it is coming long before it get's here. Heck we already know it's coming. We always know the distance to it at the present time, we just aren't seeing it as it is right now.

> will humans still see andromeda galaxy as it was in the past and then some how as it gets closer to the milkyway.. you can some how see it in real time without notice or are we seing andromeda galaxy faster in speed years rather then day by day ?

We will always see it as it was in the past, but as it moves closer, how old the image of it is will continually get shorter. As I said above, we currently see it as how it looked 2.5 million years ago, but in a billion years, when it gets closer we will see it as it looked 1.5 million years (from a billion years from now) ago. And as it continues to get closer we we see it closer and closer to it's present appearance until it is right on top of us and we will be seeing it as it actually is at the present time (more or less).

You've already asked this question under a different name. What was it that confused you about the answers you got then?

The fact that it is coming towards us doesn't mean it is significantly closer than we think it is. It can't move faster than its own emitted light, and it is in fact not going anywhere near the speed of light. The difference between where it appears to be and where it actually is is comparatively insignificant because of this.

It can no more hit us without notice than a car you see coming towards you from fifty feet away can hit you before you see it.

Great questions. I had also asked question on ya along the same lines but did not get answers to what asked. I am eagerly looking for answers.

Stop with the sock puppets.

I answered you when you asked this here: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ag...

And here: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ap...