Distances are squeezed (a log scale) so galaxies 25,000 light-years away and 40 million light-years away fit in one view; the rings mark true distances, and the list below gives each galaxy's real distance. Positions on the sky are real.
| Galaxy | Belongs to | Distance | Light |
|---|
How we know
Measuring the distance
For the nearest galaxies, astronomers use stars of known brightness: pulsating Cepheids and the brightest red giants, which all top out at the same brightness. How faint they look tells us how far away they are.
Faint dwarfs
Many of these galaxies hold only a few thousand stars and were found in the last 20 years by deep sky surveys picking out tiny clumps of old stars. More are found every year.
Coming or going
The speed comes from the shift in the colour of their light. A few nearby galaxies, including Andromeda, are coming towards us; farther out, nearly all are moving away as the universe expands.
Data: the Local Volume Database (Pace 2025, built on McConnachie 2012 and hundreds of papers), released into the public domain (CC0). Only objects confirmed as real galaxies are shown. Brightness in "Suns" is converted from each galaxy's absolute magnitude.