2007-09-27 08:05:58 · 9 answers · asked by your_dear_old_mother 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Andromeda Galaxy
2.5 million light years away
or 2.5 million multiplied by 186,000 miles or 465,000,000,000 miles (465 billion miles). If someone fired a laser beam from Andromeda at Earth, it would take 2.5 million years to get here.
2007-09-27 08:51:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
There are some questions about semantics when answering your question. There are smaller objects than galaxies called dwarf galaxies and smaller objects called Globular Clusters which can exist inside or outside of galaxies as 'satellites'.
To answer your question proper would be Andromeda.
Other answers are incorrect. The Magellanic Clouds were replaced in 1994 by the Sagitarius Dwarf Elliptical as being the closest dwarf galaxy. This was again replaced in 2003 by the Canis Major dwarf galaxy with a distance of 25,000 light years from our Solar System and 42,000 light years from the core of the Milky Way.
Raymond you might wish to update your handbook and give wiki a closer reading.
2007-09-27 13:22:29 · answer #2 · answered by Troasa 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Closest Galaxy To Ours
2017-01-01 09:55:38 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Messier 31 (M31, NGC 224) is the famous Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large neighbor galaxy, forming the Local Group of galaxies together with its companions (including M32 and M110, two bright dwarf elliptical galaxies), our Milky Way and its companions, M33, and others.
Despite the large amount of knowledge we now have about the Andromeda Galaxy, its distance, though among the best known intergalactic distances, is not really well-known. While it is well established that M31 is about 15-16 times further away than the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the absolute value of this measure is still uncertain, and in current sources, usually given between 2.4 and 2.9 million light-years - a consequence of the uncertainty in the LMC distance and thus the overall intergalactic distance scale. E.g., the semi-recent correction from data by ESA's astrometrical satellite Hipparcos has pushed this value up by more than 10 percent, from about 2.4-2.5 to the about 2.9 million light-years.
2007-09-27 08:30:07 · answer #4 · answered by Scott B 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
How many light years away is the closest galaxy to ours and what is it called?
2015-08-10 21:02:12 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, there is always the trick answer: Milky Way.
(Same family of answer as: what is the closest star? the Sun).
But I suspect that is not what you are after.
The Observer's Handbook 2007 of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada lists the following:
1. Milky Way (told you)
2. Saggitarius, 0.1 million light-years (100,000 light-years)
and then, at 0.2 million light-years:
Small Magellanic Cloud
Large Magellanic Cloud
Ursa Minor
wiki gives the same list (it calls the closest one: Sag DEG, for Saggitarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, and places it 70,000 light-years away, "one third of the distance of the Large Magellanic Cloud").
2007-09-27 08:20:29 · answer #6 · answered by Raymond 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Actually I think FORD introduced the Galaxy in the mid-60s.
2016-03-14 07:00:25 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The small Magellanic cloud is an irregular galaxy, about 70,000 light years away, and it orbits our galaxy.
The nearest non-irregular is Andromeda, a spiral galaxy slightly larger than ours, and... due to collide with us in a few billion years. It's 2.3 million light years away.
2007-09-27 08:11:25 · answer #8 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
no
2007-09-27 08:08:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 7⤋