Triangulum Galaxy

Triangulum Galaxy — galaxy, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Triangulum Galaxy in an interactive 3D view of space. See its catalogue position, distance and astronomical facts.

The third-largest galaxy in the Local Group and a possible satellite of Andromeda — a loose, flocculent spiral whose giant star-forming region NGC 604 dwarfs the Orion Nebula. Its brightest stars here are real, measured by Hubble and from the ground; fly in and representative stars, drawn from its measured light, fill in the rest.

Type

Spiral galaxy (SA(s)cd)

Distance

2.8 million light-years

Stars

~40 billion

Note

The most distant object visible to the naked eye

Shown here

454,000 real stars from Hubble (PHATTER) and the Local Group Galaxies Survey, each at its sky position

Up close

Representative stars, sampled from its measured light and labelled as such, fill in the rest

Glow & dust

Old stars: a 3D bulge and disc fitted to WISE infrared; young stars from GALEX; Herschel dust; 1,272 H II regions

Depth

Disc tilted 56° (measured); its thickness and each star’s depth along our line of sight are modelled

Explore Triangulum Galaxy in 3D

Triangulum Galaxy is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.