What is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way?
The nearest galaxy to the Milky Way in this catalog is the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 163,000 ly away, and it is bright enough to see with the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. Everything about Large Magellanic Cloud →
| # | Galaxy | Distance | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| ★ 1 | Large Magellanic Cloud | 163,000 ly | irregular |
| 2 | Small Magellanic Cloud | 200,000 ly | irregular |
| 3 | Andromeda | 2.5 million ly | spiral |
| 4 | Triangulum | 2.7 million ly | spiral |
| 5 | Sculptor | 11 million ly | starburst |
| 6 | Cigar | 12 million ly | starburst |
| 7 | Bode's | 12 million ly | spiral |
| 8 | Centaurus A | 12 million ly | elliptical |
| 9 | Black Eye | 17 million ly | spiral |
| 10 | Pinwheel | 21 million ly | spiral |
| 11 | Whirlpool | 23 million ly | spiral |
| 12 | Messier 106 | 24 million ly | spiral |
| 13 | Sunflower | 27 million ly | spiral |
| 14 | Sombrero | 30 million ly | lenticular |
| 15 | NGC 3810 | 46 million ly | spiral |
| 16 | NGC 1556 | 46 million ly | barred spiral |
| 17 | NGC 3718 | 46 million ly | spiral |
| 18 | NGC 1411 | 46 million ly | elliptical |
| 19 | NGC 4504 | 46 million ly | spiral |
| 20 | NGC 1055 | 46 million ly | barred spiral |
| 21 | IC 3065 | 46 million ly | lenticular |
| 22 | IC 3461 | 46 million ly | elliptical |
| 23 | IC 2782 | 47 million ly | spiral |
| 24 | NGC 4343 | 47 million ly | barred spiral |
| 25 | NGC 1389 | 47 million ly | elliptical |
Showing the top 25 of 9,440 that qualify.
The catalog behind this ranking is OpenNGC, which covers the New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue: the galaxies that are bright and well-defined enough to have been catalogued as objects. The Milky Way also has a swarm of faint dwarf satellites, several of them closer than anything here, that were only found by picking out overdensities of individual stars. They are real neighbours and they are not NGC objects, so this record is scoped to the catalog rather than claimed absolutely.
Distances to the nearest galaxies are measured rather than inferred from redshift, using standard candles such as Cepheid variables and the tip of the red giant branch. Further out, distance comes from redshift and Hubble's law, which is why this site labels which method produced each number.
What is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way?
The nearest galaxy to the Milky Way in this catalog is the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 163,000 ly away, and it is bright enough to see with the naked eye from the southern hemisphere.
How far away is the nearest galaxy?
The Large Magellanic Cloud lies about 163,000 ly away. For comparison, the Milky Way itself is roughly 100,000 light-years across, so our nearest catalogued neighbour is only a couple of galaxy-widths off.
Is Andromeda the nearest galaxy?
It is the nearest large spiral galaxy, and the most distant thing most people can see with the naked eye, but the Magellanic Clouds are far closer. Andromeda is the one on a collision course with us, due in about four billion years.
Can you see other galaxies without a telescope?
Yes, a handful. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are obvious from the southern hemisphere, and Andromeda and the Triangulum Galaxy are visible from a dark northern site as faint smudges. Everything else needs equipment.
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