The nearest galaxy to Earth is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, a satellite of the Milky Way, located about 25,000 light-years from the Sun. The next closest is the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, roughly 70,000 light-years away, followed by the Large Magellanic Cloud at about 179,000 light-years. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the nearest major galaxy, at about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. Distances to these objects are measured using standard candles and stellar population methods, such as Cepheid variables and RR Lyrae stars, among others.
