andromeda: the princess; the chained maiden

Andromeda suffered the ultimate betrayal. Hoping to avoid losing their land, her parents chained her to a cliff as a sacrifice to a monster sent by Poseidon; punishment for her mother Cassiopeia’s vanity. Perseus saved her by turning the creature to stone using Medusa’s head. Andromeda lives light years away from home now. Yet even betrayal cannot separate a mother and child. Their two galaxies will collide head-on in about 4 billion years. Andromeda and Cassiopeia will fly through one another, leaving starry tendrils in their wakes. For eons, the pair will continue to come together and fly apart, scrambling stars and redrawing constellations until eventually, after a billion or so years have passed, the two galaxies merge. “V” shaped star constellation which lies close to the north pole, and thus is only visible from the Southern Hemisphere during spring time (October to December), but in the Northern hemisphere can be viewed from August to February.