Beyond the orbit of Pluto we reach deep space, where we would have to travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) for 4.2 years before reaching the Sun’s nearest neighbor, the star Proxima Centauri. This vast area of virtually empty space becomes minute when we then consider distances between galaxies. The distance to the Andromeda galaxy, a close neighbor of ours, is over 2 million light years (a light year works out at 5,865,696,000,000 miles).

Starburst Galaxy, M82, Chandra, courtesy NASA