When galaxies collide Is this how the world will end?
Is THIS how the world will end? Astronomers warn there's a 50% chance the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way - swallowing Earth in the process
Astronomers warn there's a 50% chance the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way - swallowing Earth in the process
The end of the world might not be something we enjoy thinking about, but a new study has provided a terrifying glimpse at what could be in store.
Astronomers say there's a 50 per cent chance the Andromeda galaxy – also known as Messier 31 – will collide with the Milky Way in the next 10 billion years, swallowing Earth in the process.
While this sounds like bad news, a 50/50 chance is actually less certain than scientists previously assumed.
If and when the collision occurs, planets and stars in the two galaxies would be flung together, creating one super galaxy known as 'Milkdromeda'.
There's a small chance our sun would collide with another star, which could alter our position in relation to the sun and threaten life on Earth – if it still exists by then.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13742825/Andromeda-galaxy-collide-Milky.html
Astronomers warn there's a 50% chance the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way - swallowing Earth in the process
The end of the world might not be something we enjoy thinking about, but a new study has provided a terrifying glimpse at what could be in store.
Astronomers say there's a 50 per cent chance the Andromeda galaxy – also known as Messier 31 – will collide with the Milky Way in the next 10 billion years, swallowing Earth in the process.
While this sounds like bad news, a 50/50 chance is actually less certain than scientists previously assumed.
If and when the collision occurs, planets and stars in the two galaxies would be flung together, creating one super galaxy known as 'Milkdromeda'.
There's a small chance our sun would collide with another star, which could alter our position in relation to the sun and threaten life on Earth – if it still exists by then.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13742825/Andromeda-galaxy-collide-Milky.html
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TechTranscript
00:00Imagine having a galaxy fall on your head, and you survive the experience.
00:05NASA astronomers say that's exactly what's going to happen to our Milky Way galaxy
00:10approximately four billion years from now.
00:13New data from the Hubble Space Telescope confirm that the Milky Way is on a collision course
00:18with the Great Andromeda Galaxy.
00:21When the mash-up occurs, say researchers, it's likely the sun will be flung into a new region of our galaxy,
00:28but Earth and the solar system are in no danger of being destroyed.
00:33After nearly a century of speculation about the future destiny of Andromeda and our Milky Way,
00:38we at last have a clear picture of how events will unfold over the coming billions of years,
00:44says Sangmo Thonisone of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
00:50Astronomers have long known that Andromeda and the Milky Way were converging,
00:55drawn together by their mutual pull of gravity and an invisible dark matter halo that surrounds them both.
01:01But no one knew whether the far future encounter would be a near miss,
01:05a glancing blow, or a head-on smash-up.
01:09It all depends on the amount of Andromeda's sideways motion.
01:13A lot of sideways motion would allow Andromeda to sail wide of the Milky Way,
01:18missing our galaxy entirely.
01:20Less of it would bring the two galaxies directly together.
01:24The Hubble team, led by Roland van der Merel of the Space Telescope Science Institute,
01:29conducted extraordinarily precise observations of the sideways motion that removes any doubt.
01:35Andromeda is destined to collide directly and merge with the Milky Way.
01:40Although the two galaxies will plow into each other,
01:43stars inside each galaxy are so far apart that they will not collide individually.
01:48Instead, the stars will be thrown into different orbits around a new combined galactic center.
01:55Simulations show that our own sun will probably be tossed much farther from the galactic core than it is today.
02:02Team member Gertina Besla of Columbia University in New York describes what a head-on collision will be like.
02:09The stellar populations of both galaxies would be jostled and the Milky Way will lose its flattened pancake shape.
02:16The two galaxies' cores will merge and the stars will settle into randomized orbits to create a new, elliptical-shaped galaxy.
02:24To make matters more complicated, Andromeda has a companion, the Triangulum Galaxy, also known as M33.
02:32M33 is a relatively small galaxy, not nearly as large as Andromeda or the Milky Way.
02:39Nevertheless, it could play a big role.
02:42M33 will join in the collision and perhaps later merge with the Andromeda-Milky Way pair.
02:48There is even a small chance that M33 might hit the Milky Way first.
02:53Amazingly, Earth and the solar system should emerge from the melee unscathed.
02:58We'll just have a new galactic address and perhaps a night sky with a double helping of stars.
03:04It turns out that a galaxy falling on your head isn't so bad after all.