The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the closest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, visible to the naked eye and set to merge with our galaxy in the distant future The Nearest Large Spiral Galaxy: ...
"Beyond the Milky Way lie billions of other galaxies, drifting a few million light years from one another like lily pads floating on the surface of a pond." — Timothy Ferris in Seeing in the Dark A ...