What is the closet galaxy to the Milky Way Galaxy?

Question

Just wondering.

Answer 1

David Bo Got it correct.........

Answer 2

Canis major (great dog) at about 40,000 light years.

Answer 3

Depends what you are willing to call a galaxy.

The "Virgo Stellar Stream" is partly inside our Galaxy because it is in the process of being absorbed.  Although it could have been a dwarf galaxy, it is unclear what it now is (other than a stream of stars, as the name indicates).

There are two other "things" that are closer to our Galaxy than the Canis Major dwarf (at least, we are certain that this is a galaxy... sort of).  But Canis Major (CMa) is ranked as the galaxy closest to ours (until we discover something else).

CMa Dwarf is only 25,000 light-years from us (same distance as we are to the centre of our own Galaxy), but 40,000 l-y from the centre of our Galaxy.  It was difficult to detect because it is hidden by the dust and gas of our own Galaxy's disk.

The closest "non-irregular" galaxy is SagDEG (Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy) at 70,000 light-years.  The name SagDEG is unfortunately easy to confuse with SagDIG (Dwarf Irregular Galaxy), which happens to be (we think) the furthest galaxy in our Local Group, at 3.6 million light-years.

Ah, the things we do to make exam time more difficult...

Answer 4

The closest galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy at about 2(two) million light years away.

Answer 5

Andromeda 2mil. lyrs

Answer 6

What precisely is a "closet galaxy"?  I've checked all three of my closets at home and not one had a galaxy. I looked carefully.  Amelia, my long haired cat frequents my main closet, but again she is a cat, and not a galaxy.  She has a great deal of hair, but no stars.  Your question is very much a puzzle!!

Answer 7

Heh heh.

Well, right now the Milkyway is in the process of cannibalizing a dwarf elliptical galaxy. The Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical (Sag DEG) to be exact.

But I think the Canis Minor Dwarf is even closer and we are eating it as well.

Answer 8

Its the Sagittarius Dwarf.

Answer 9

The Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy.  I just looked it up on the internet

Answer 10

Isn't the Andromeda Galaxy?

Answer 11

That's tricky.  The closest large galaxy is the Andromeda galaxy at just over 2 million light years away.   But the Milky Way has  a number of satellite galaxies (among them, both Magellanic clouds) AND the Milky Way is still in the process of ripping apart and assimilating a number of smaller galaxies.

Answer 12

That would be the Canis Major dwarf galaxy.