Triangulum

M33 · A neighboring spiral

Triangulum lies about 3 million light-years from Earth. Its light crosses intergalactic space for roughly 3 million years before reaching us.

The moving dashes represent light travelling between galaxies. Their speed and the spacing of the galaxy icons are illustrative.

≈ 60,000 light-years across.

The luminous stellar disk is roughly 60,000 light-years across. This is a rounded reference extent, not a boundary: faint stars and gas reach beyond the bright spiral.

The overview compares this galaxy with a rounded Milky Way reference of 100,000 light-years on one linear scale. These luminous extents do not represent sharp physical edges.

Loose arms, bright nurseries

Young blue stars and dusty gas trace the loose spiral arms. The giant star-forming region NGC 604 is one of its most striking features. The central stellar concentration is much less prominent than Andromeda’s.

Select Halo, Disk or Bulge to highlight each component. This is a schematic model, not a reconstruction of exact proportions. Animation speed is not a physical rotation rate.

The third large spiral

Triangulum joins Andromeda and the Milky Way as the three largest galaxies of the Local Group. It lies near Andromeda on the wider galactic map; the diagram here compares its distance from us, not its separation from Andromeda.