Abstract
Although not a close match to our Galaxy, M31 is, nevertheless, a useful galaxy for comparing with the Milky Way, as it is the only large spiral for which we can obtain detailed information of certain kinds. Recent work at many wavelengths has made it one of the most thoroughly observed galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The following is a discussion of some of the more challenging areas of similarity and of contrast between them. Insight into certain questions is certainly gained by their comparison, but it must also be confessed that, frustratingly, some problems that confound students of the Milky Way because of our location in the plane, similarly confound those who study M31 because of its nearly edge-on inclination angle.
Adapted from Hodge (1985).
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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Hodge, P. (1992). A Comparison of M31 with the Milky Way. In: The Andromeda Galaxy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 176. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8056-4_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8056-4_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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