Doug (@duhaime) and I have developed an open source web simulation of 3D distribution of 4673 galaxies < 200 Mpc from the Milky Way: https://riteshsingh.github.io/galaxies/
The code is open source under the MIT license at github.com/RiteshSingh/galaxies
Fortunately, this project culminated in a publication: academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/61/4/4.42/5873800 and papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3668727.
We duly acknowledge the three.js library in the paper:
The simulation uses the three.js library (threejs.org).
In the paper, we also thank the ever kind Paul (@prisoner849) and @marquizzo, as well as this forum, for their most helpful guidance:
We thank Paul West (prisoner849) and marquizzo on discourse.threejs.org
10 Likes
Haha, thanks guys! Glad I could help. And congrats! I’m gonna call my mother and tell her my name is in a published scientific paper 
!
4 Likes
I’m surprised to find that there are so many galaxies closer to ours than Andromeda. I thought Andromeda was our nearest neighbor, given the upcoming collision.
3 Likes
Thank you @marquizzo for your encouraging response 
While Andromeda is our nearest large galaxy, there are many dwarf galaxies nearer to it. The most well known among them are the Magellanic Clouds, which are even visible to the naked eye.
However, at least four other major dwarf galaxies are known: Sculptor Dwarf, Draco Dwarf, UMI Dwarf, and Fornax Dwarf.
You may be surprised to know that if we include the minor dwarf galaxies as well, at least 60 are known to us to be closer than Andromeda: List of nearest galaxies - Wikipedia
3 Likes