Home › Universe › Triangulum Galaxy (M33)
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Spiral galaxy
Triangulum Galaxy (M33)
The third-largest galaxy in the Local Group – and, under a perfectly dark sky, perhaps the most distant object that can be glimpsed with the naked eye at all.
Key figures
- Distance
- 2.73 million light-years
- Diameter
- about 60,000 light-years
- Stars
- about 40 billion
- Constellation
- Triangulum
Interesting facts
- It contains NGC 604, one of the largest star-forming regions of all: 1,500 light-years across, 100 times larger than the Orion Nebula.
Companion of Andromeda
M33 is probably a companion of the Andromeda Galaxy and would most likely be drawn into a “Milkomeda” merger as well.
How to find Triangulum Galaxy in the sky
About as far from Mirach as the Andromeda Galaxy, but on the opposite side. Very faint and spread out – only with binoculars under a really dark sky, for example in the mountains.
Visible with: binoculars. More under Watching the sky.
Where is it?
Triangulum Galaxy (M33) belongs to the “The Local Group” level of the Cosmic Zoom (field of view about 10 million light-years). The Milky Way is not alone: together with the Andromeda Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy and around 80 small dwarf galaxies it forms the Local Group.
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