How far away are local galxies and do they still exist?

Question

I believe they are 5 billion or so years old (correct me if I'm wrong). That's a long time, but do these galaxies still exist? The reason I ask is because our galaxy still exists, so it would seem that the other local galaxies would have to too. But 5 billion years old is a long time, is it not? Would galaxies have existed before our local ones and ours came to be?

Also, how far away is the furthest dust of our galaxy in terms of light years?

Answer 1

galaxies are older than 5 billion years, our sun is approx 5 billion years old and there are older stars around us in our own galaxy

our own galaxy is approx 100,000 light-years across, with sun being approx 30,000 light-years from the center in a spiral arm called Orion Arm

next closest galaxies are the small irregular galaxies that we call the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, about 200,000 light years from Milky Way

closest big galaxy is M31 called the Andromeda Galaxy, about 2,000,000 light-years away

yes, they still exist, unless you think there is a slight possibility that a galaxy could be destroyed in some unknown manner and we would not know it until many thousands or even milions of years had passed; generally, the assumption would be that things remain as they seem unless we have some evidence to the contrary

Answer 2

Yes, they're still here.

I believe that you need to remember how VAST galaxies truly are, and that most galaxies (including our own) are around 10.5 Billion years old (that's Billion, not million). Given the vastness of galaxies (100s of millions of stars) and the slow rate at which stars evolve, it's no wonder they're still here.

Galaxies don't evolve, or age, they way other things do. it appears that they undergo change by interacting with each other...in HUGH collisions, from time to time. Otherwise, new stars are always forming even as the older ones die off.

By the way, our solar system is about 4.6 Billion years old, so galaxies are about twice that age, and the Big Bang is estimated to have happened around 14 Billion years ago. It's an old, but fascinating, universe out there!

Answer 3

The closer galaxies to ours, are around 1 or 2 million light years away. And yes, they do still exist. Some of their stars might have exploded but most of them are still there.

Answer 4

AGE OF THE UNIVERSE

The universe is 13.7 billion years old. There are stars within the Milky Way which are almost as old as that e.g. Barnard's Star 5.96 light years away is estimated as being 11-12 billion years old. The Sun, a mere stripling at 4,57 billion years old, only appeared on the scene when the Universe was already more than 9 billion years old.

STEADY STATE COSMOLOGY AND BIG BANG COSMOLOGY

Sir Fred Hoyle and Jarwent Narlikar, the Cambridge Observatory team that developed the Steady State Theory in the 1960s postulated that matter was continuously created in the space inbetween galaxies as the Universe expanded. According to that theory, a steady supply of new galaxies would add to the age-range of all the galaxies in the Universe.

The Big Bang theory however argues that all matter was formed in the first 3 seconds after the Big Bang, galaxies formed early on and stars within them emerged from the dust clouds and began fusing hydrogen to make helium. Individual stars have died at various points in time since the Universe began and their matter then got recycled to form new stars.

The Big Bang theory is widely supported by most astronomers.

Essentially, stars die, galaxies do not, they replenish themselves.

LOCAL GALAXIES

The two nearest galaxies to us that are similar in size to the Milky Way are M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) at 2.56 million light years away and M33 (the Triangulum Galaxy) at 2.64 million light years away.

There are some 30 minor (dwarf) galaxies inbetween us and M31, Half of them are the Milky Way's satellite galaxies and half of them are Andromeda's satellite galaxies: they all still exist,

Galaxy / Distance in lightyears
1. Milky Way Galaxy 0
2. Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy 25,000
3. Virgo Stellar Stream 30,000
4. Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy 81,000
5. Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) 168,000
6. Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) 200,000
7. Ursa Minor Dwarf Galaxy 240,000
8. Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy 254,000
9. Draco Dwarf Galaxy 280,000
10. Sextans Dwarf Galaxy 320,000
11. Ursa Major Dwarf 330,000
12. Carina Dwarf Galaxy 360,000
13. Fornax Dwarf Galaxy 460,000
14. Leo II Dwarf Galaxy 680,000
15. Leo I Dwarf Galaxy 820,000
16. Phoenix Dwarf Galaxy 1,300,000
17. Barnard's Galaxy (NGC 6822) 1,630,000
18. NGC 185 2,010,000
19. Andromeda II 2,130,000
20. NGC 147 2,200,000
21. Leo A 2,250,000
22. IC 1613 2,350,000
23. Andromeda I 2,430,000
24. Andromeda III 2,440,000
25. Cetus Dwarf 2,460,000
26. M32 (NGC 221) 2,480,000
27. Andromeda VII 2,490,000
28. Andromeda IX 2,500,000
29. LGS 3 2,510,000
30. Andromeda V 2,520,000
31. Andromeda VI 2,550,000
32. Andromeda Galaxy (M31) 2,560,000
33. Triangulum Galaxy (M33) 2,640,000

THE LOCAL GROUP

The Local Group is the group of galaxies that includes our galaxy, the Milky Way. The group comprises over 30 galaxies, with its gravitational center located somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.

The two most massive members of the group are the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. These two barred spirals each have a system of satellite galaxies.

The galaxies of the Local Group cover a 10 million light-year diameter and have a binary (dumbbell) shape. The group itself is one of many within the Virgo Supercluster (i.e. the Local Supercluster).

THE VIRGO SUPERCLUSTER

The diameter of the Supercluster is about 200 million light years; it contains about 100 groups and clusters of galaxies and is dominated by the Virgo cluster near its center. Our Local Group is located near the edge and is being drawn inward toward the Virgo cluster