2007, probably the hottest year ever

According to the British Meteorological Office, there is a 60% chance that 2007 will be the hottest year in history. That would meen breaking the record that was set in 1998. The reason for this hot year is the El Nino, and while it isn't as powerfull as it was in 1997 and 1998, it still might be enough to break the record.

Andromeda galaxy five times bigger then thought

According to an article from space.com, the Andromeda galaxy might actually be up to five times bigger then it was thought. This conclusion came as the result of the discovery of several large stars, located far away from the center of the Andromeda galaxy. All the stars that were discovered are red giants. For those that don't know the Andromeda galaxy is the closest neighbour to our galaxy, the Milky Way, though the distance to it is around 2.5 million light years. The Andromeda galaxy, or the M31 as its also called, is around 1 million light years in diameter.

These red giants are poor in metal, due to the fact that they belong to the halo of the galaxy, which is formed first. The reason for the low quantity of metal is the fact that in the beggining the Universe had less heave metal then it does now.

If you're looking to compare the Andromeda Galaxy with the Milky Way (our own galaxy), then there are a few facts you should know. The Andromeda Galaxy , while it might be smaller then the Milky Way, has way more stars, so the mass of the Milky Way is around 80% of the Andromeda. The Andromeda has around 1 trillion stars, a truly impressive number. Another interesting fact is that the Andromeda Galaxy is aproaching our sun at a speed of 300km/second. Due to the fact that the Sun is also moving in our own galaxy, the actual speed with which the Andromeda is aproaching us is between 100 and 140km/second.