Mizar & Alcor and Andromeda Galaxy
Richard Brown
Mizar & Alcor
Mizar and Alcor's proper motion show they move together (they are both members of the Ursa Major), but it has yet to be demonstrated conclusively that they are gravitationally bound. Recent studies indicate that the Alcor binary and Mizar quadruple are somewhat closer together than previously thought: approximately 74,000 & 39,000 astronomic units or 0.5–1.5 light years. The pair is considered to symbolize marriage (Vashishtha and Arundhati were a married couple) and, in some Hindu communities, priests conducting a wedding ceremony allude to or point out the constellation as a symbol of the closeness marriage brings to a couple.
Andromeda galaxy
The Andromeda galaxy is a Spiral Galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million Light-years) from Earth. It is the nearest major Galaxy to the Milkey Way and was often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. It received its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the Constellation of Andromida, which was named after the mythological princess Andromida. Being approximately 220,000 light years across, it is the largest galaxy of the Local Group which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulun-Galaxy, and about 44 other smaller galaxies. The apparent magntude of the Andromeda Galaxy, at 3.4, is one of the brightest of any of the Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution . it is about 9.006 billion years old.and the star count in the galaxy would be 1 trillion.