The universe is made up of billions of galaxies. A galaxy is a unique cluster of numerous objects and celestial bodies such as stars, planets, moons, comets, and asteroids that are held together by gravitational attraction. The closest to the Milky Way is … the Canis Major dwarf satellite galaxy.
Canis Major dwarf galaxy: 28,000 light years away
This galaxy is located in the constellation Canis Maior and is located about 42,000 light years from the galactic center and about 28,000 light years from our solar system. It is the closest galaxy to ours. It was discovered in 2003 when a team led by Australian and European astronomers found it. Compared to the Milky Way, this galaxy has approximately 1 billion stars, while the Milky Way has more than 100 billion stars.
Sagittarius Elliptical Dwarf Galaxy: 70,000 Light Years Away
With a diameter of about 10,000 light years, this satellite galaxy of the Milky Way is 70,000 light years distant from Earth. It was discovered by Rodrigo Ibata, Mike Irwin and Gerry Gilmore in 1994. Due to its location opposite the solar system in relation to the galactic center, it is not an easy object to observe despite its large diameter. According to experts, it is an ancient galaxy with little interstellar dust and old, metal-poor stars.
Large Magellanic Cloud: 165,000 light years away
This satellite galaxy of the Milky Way was discovered for the first time by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi in 964 CE. Later, it was Magellan, on his trip around the world in 1519, who contributed more information about this galaxy to our knowledge. The Magellanic Clouds (the Large Magellanic Cloud and its apparent neighbor and relative, the Small Magellanic Cloud) are irregular dwarf galaxies. The Large Magellanic Cloud is packed with interesting objects including diffuse nebulae, globular and open clusters, planetary nebulae, and much more.
Boötes dwarf galaxy: 197,000 light years away
This spherical-type dwarf galaxy was discovered thanks to the high-end spectroscope located in New Mexico, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It was 2007. The galaxy, located in the constellation Boötes, is quite dim. It has an apparent magnitude of 13.1 and an absolute magnitude of -5.8. Its luminosity is barely 100,000 times that of the Sun. It is one of the least luminous galaxies ever discovered . Its stars are quite sparse from each other and look like stars in a very old globular cluster, suggesting that the galaxy itself is quite old.
Small Magellanic Cloud: 200,000 light years away
This object is, like the Large Magellanic Cloud, an irregular galaxy, a distorted barred disk, deformed by the tidal forces of the Milky Way and the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud itself. It is 100 times smaller than the Milky Way, so it barely has about 1,000 or 4,000 stars under its belt.
The next ones in close proximity would be: Ursa Minor Dwarf, Draco Dwarf, Sextans Dwarf, Sculptor Dwarf and Ursa Major I Dwarf, all of them from the Local Group.
