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What is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way?

What is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way?

Last updated: May 2, 2025

We've all heard about the galaxies far, far away, but what about the ones close, close by? Our Milky Way is swimming in space with billions of cosmic neighbors, and astronomers have spent millennia trying to map it all out. What's the nearest major galaxy to our own?

The Andromeda Galaxy is our next-door neighbor at a mere 2.5 million light-years away, close enough that you can actually see it with your naked eye on a dark night (sorry city folks). Our massive spiral neighbor is actually headed straight for us and will crash into the Milky Way in about 4.5 billion years. Lucky for us, space is mostly empty so the galaxies will just kind of pass through each other (but don't tell the dinosaurs that cosmic collisions never hurt anybody).

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