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On the galactic scale, 2.5 million light-years (2.3651321 × 10^19 kilometers, the distance between Milkyway and Andromeda Galaxy) distance means the next-door neighbor. Knowing that The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 110 kilometers per second (68 miles per second) makes the word "proximity" even more meaningful.

Our galaxy and The Andromeda Galaxy are on a collision course predicted to occur in about 4.5 billion years from now. The collision will be like a cosmic dance, a spectacular series of close passes lasting billions of years (nearly 5 billion years), and finally they will merge into a single elliptical galaxy.

Even more interestingly, recent measurements showed that the collision of the outer halos of the Andromeda Galaxy and Milkyway Galaxy has already begun.