How many known galaxies are there and how far away is the nearest one?
Hazlet, NJ ANSWER: Our solar system is located in a spiral galaxy, which we see at night as the Milky Way. In this sense, the nearest galaxy is our own, since we are inside of it. Our galaxy is part of a group of about 20 galaxies known as the Local Group with two other spiral galaxies like our own and many smaller galaxies. The closest of the two spiral galaxies is Andromeda which is about 2 million light years away. Light travels at a finite velocity, the light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach us. A light year is then the distance light travels in one year. The Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds, which are satellite galaxies of our own galaxy, are much closer; they are only about 150,000 and 200,000 light years away. There are millions of galaxies in the universe. When you look at a Deep Field image of the Hubble Space Telescope, you can see hundreds of galaxies in an area of the sky as small as President Roosevelt’s eye on a dime held at arm’s length. And in order to c
