An image of a dwarf elliptical galaxy satellite of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331

Figure 2. An image of a dwarf elliptical galaxy satellite of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, a galaxy similar to the Milky Way's companion, the great Andromeda galaxy M31. This image shows the same exposure, but with increasing emphasis on very faint features. This study reveals for the first time that this galaxy is 50,000 light-years across (half the size of the Milky Way), and may be in the process of dissolving into the halo of NGC 7331 as its stars are stripped by gravitational tides. If one end of this galaxy were placed at the centre of the Milky Way, the other end would reach nearly to the edge of our Galaxy's disc, well past the location of the Sun.