• Question: what is the name of the galaxy closest to our milky way?

    Asked by damiola to Catherine, Adam, Leila on 11 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by tedy2002.
    • Photo: Catherine Rix

      Catherine Rix answered on 11 Mar 2012:

      I had to look this one up, because I don’t know it! Most of the work I do at the moment is very much focused in our solar system. In 2003 a team of researchers discovered the Canis Major Dwarf galaxy, which is 25000 light years away from Earth. Before this we thought that the closest galaxy was the Sagitarius Dwarf galaxy which was discovered in 1994. I guess it’s possible we could discover an even closer one in the future.

    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      The actual nearest is apparently called (unimaginatively) the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. Which basically means a galaxy near the Canis major constellation.

      My /favourite/ nearby galaxies are the Greater and Small Magellanic Clouds, which have been seen and described for over a thousand years, and have a much cooler name 🙂

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      Well the nearest spiral one (like our Milky Way) is the Andromeda galaxy, which you can see with a telescope (but not with your eyes because the light’s too dim), and looks bigger in the sky than the moon!

      http://www.andromedachild.com/2012/01/wonders-of-andromeda.html

      All the nearer ones are called dwarf galaxies because they are much smaller than our own, and have fewer stars in a boring sort of clump 😀

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