Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..
Got a breaking news topic or want to post the most recent issues for sensible, on-topic discussion? This is the forum for you.
| Announcements | Posted on | |
|---|---|---|
-
- Reputation:
- Thread Starter
- Adored and Respected Member
Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..Source: http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16239635Astronomers have always believed our galaxy may collide with its cosmic neighbour Andromeda - and now the doomsday scenario has been confirmed.
Nasa has spent years tracking the direction of the Andromeda galaxy through its Hubble Space telescope.
The US space agency confirmed its precise observations "remove any doubt that it is destined to collide and merge with the Milky Way".
But there is little point in panicking yet - the big crash will not happen for another four billion years.
And after the two finally meet it will then take another two billion years for them "to completely merge under the tug of gravity and reshape into a single elliptical galaxy similar to the kind commonly seen in the local universe," Nasa added.
In the worst-case-scenario simulation, M31 slams into the Milky Way head-on and the stars are all scattered into different orbits.
Gurtina Besla, Columbia University
The stars inside the galaxies will not collide, however, according to Nasa they will be "thrown into different orbits around the new galactic centre".
Scientists have estimated that Andromeda, also known as M31, is moving towards our galaxy at a speed of 250,000 miles (402,000kms) per hour - the same speed as it would take to travel from Earth to the Moon in an hour.
Andromeda, which is currently 2.5 million light-years away, was first spotted as "a little cloud" by the Persian astronomer Abd al Rahman al Sufi in 964.
For more than 100 years scientists have been trying to discover what direction of movement the galaxy was taking, and repeated observations over a five-to-seven year period from the Hubble telescope have finally allowed them to determine its course.
Gurtina Besla of Columbia University in New York said: "In the worst-case scenario simulation, M31 slams into the Milky Way head-on and the stars are all scattered into different orbits.
"The stellar populations of both galaxies are jostled, and the Milky Way loses its flattened pancake shape with most of the stars on nearly circular orbits.
"The galaxies' cores merge, and the stars settle into randomised orbits to create an elliptical-shaped galaxy."
LOL, a poster made some epic comment on this:No worries, George Osborne will ensure we are ok by arranging a U turn. -
- Reputation:
- Benevolent Member
- Posts: 887
Re: Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..who cares I will be gone by then and so probably will the human race but if we are still lucky enough and advanced enough to be still around then we will probably have developed space ships to take us to another galaxy.
-
- Reputation:
- Peer Of The TSR Realm
- Posts: 1,568
Re: Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..Gravitational fields work in a radial manner. This is why you get galaxies looking like this http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...ic_460x276.jpg(Original post by Nightingale)
I was just reading this today and I got confused: if the universe is expanding, why are these galaxies getting closer instead of further apart?
The same concept applies to bigger things i.e Galaxies in a galactic complex. So Galaxies can "Lash" into each other due to centripetal forces acting unequally on objects depending on their distance from the centre of gravity.
Either that, or "God wants it that way." -
- Reputation:
- Vengeful, Imperial Overlord of The Student Room
- Posts: 4,064
Re: Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..If everything was frozen in position and all forces removed, the expansion of space would slowly move everything away from everything else, right down to subatomic particles. A force acting between two things can overcome the "force" of the expansion of the universe to keep them bound together. So atoms are held together by the strong nuclear force and electromagnetism and clusters of galaxies are held together by gravity. All these forces are strong enough to overcome the expansion of space.(Original post by Nightingale)
I was just reading this today and I got confused: if the universe is expanding, why are these galaxies getting closer instead of further apart?
The Milky Way and Andromeda are close enough that gravity can pull them together faster than the space between them can expand. When you go out a few tens of millions of light years (a bit of a guess there), the gravity between us and a distant galaxy isn't strong enough to overcome the expanding space in between so the galaxy will be carried away from us.
Edit: Also, one possible end for the universe is called the big rip. This where the expansion of space gets faster and faster until even the forces holding atoms together can't overcome it and they're ripped apart. The universe ends with all subatomic particles alone and separated by vast ever increasing distances.Last edited by SsEe; 01-06-2012 at 22:28. -
- Reputation:
- TSR Legend
- Location: London
- Posts: 11,055
Re: Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..(Original post by Hugh G. Rection)
I've already started laying down the blueprints for my underground bunker even if it is 4 billion years away...
I've already made mine and I'm inside it...
-
- Reputation:
- Benevolent Member
- Location: London
Re: Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..It's not like there's going to be a huge flashy explosion when the galaxies collide anyway. It'll be a slow process and the chances of our sun colliding with another are incredibly small.
Of course, in 4 Billion years our sun will have destroyed all existing life on Earth anyway, so... -
- Reputation:
- Exalted and Worshipped Member
- Location: Leeds
- Posts: 1,069
Re: Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..I wouldn't go that far(Original post by Studentus-anonymous)
This isn't even news. It's been common knowledge Andromeda and the Milky Way were on a collision course for ages.
-
- Reputation:
- TSR Legend
- Location: Gloucestershire
- Posts: 10,368
Re: Milky Way Will Collide With Andromeda Galaxy - in 4billion yrs..I don't plan to be(Original post by Eva_UK)
Who cares? We don't need to panick because we'll all be long dead
This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App
