“All bright galaxies within 20 million light years, including us, are organized in a ‘Local Sheet’ 34-million light years across and only 1.5-million light years thick,” says McCall.
“The Milky Way and Andromeda are encircled by twelve large galaxies arranged in a ring about 24-million light years across – this ‘Council of Giants’ stands in gravitational judgment of the Local Group by restricting its range of influence.”
http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press...ncil-of-giants
The full text document is at
http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/cont...8/mnras.stu199
The 12 large nearby
‘Council of Giants’ galaxies are Cen A, NGC4945, M83, M64, M94, M81, M82, IC342, Maffei 1 & 2, NGC253 and Circinus.