M31 or the Andromeda Galaxy: this magnificent spiral galaxy, located about 2.5 million light-years away from Earth, needs no introduction. Along with its two elliptical satellite companions, M32 (a dwarf galaxy visible near the upper peripheral dust of M31) and M110 (visible below), it forms, together with other galaxies including our own Milky Way, the so-called Local Group, of which M31 is the largest member (about 220,000 light-years in diameter). The number of stars is approximately 1,000 billion (about twice the number in the Milky Way).
In this image, a filter was used to highlight the ionized hydrogen (in red) present both in the galaxy and in our Milky Way.
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