Good news for the Milky Way galaxy: New study reveals 50-50 odds of a collision with Andromeda
Astronomers say that a collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda may not be a forgone conclusion and “we could avoid this fate entirely.”
NASA astronomers predicted that our Milky Way galaxy and neighboring Andromeda galaxy were on a crash course for a head-on collision with each other over a decade ago. However, new research by a Finnish-led team of researchers published in Nature Astronomy say the “proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated.”
Using observational data from NASA’s Hubble and the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescopes they ran 100,000 simulations which resulted in a coin toss for the galactic collision. Furthermore, the study found that the time frame for such an event would be much longer than previously predicted.
Scientists reevaluate fate of Milkomeda galaxy
The original calculations had Andromeda, a spiral galaxy like our own but much larger, plowing into the Milky Way in roughly 4 billion years. The merger of the two galaxies over the subsequent 2 billion years would create what has been dubbed Milkomeda and it would reshape both creating a single elliptical galaxy.
However, the study’s authors say that there is only a 2 percent chance that Andromeda and the Milky Way will slam into each other over the next 5 billion years. Additionally, there was just a 50-50 possibility that the two galaxies will collide and merge and that wouldn’t happen for another 8 to 10 billion years.
The conclusions were based on several more data points than previous work. “While some earlier works had focused on the interaction between the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum galaxy, we also include the effect of the [Large Magellanic Cloud],” said lead author Dr. Till Sawala, of the University of Helsinki.
“Although its mass is only around 15% of the Milky Way’s, its gravitational pull directed perpendicular to the orbit with Andromeda perturbs the Milky Way’s motion enough to significantly reduce the chance of a merger with the Andromeda galaxy,” he explained.
“It used to appear destined to merge with Andromeda forming a colossal ‘Milkomeda’,” Sawala added. “Now, there is a chance that we could avoid this fate entirely.”
Earth won’t be around to take part in the potential galactic collision
As for the fate of Earth, NASA says that there wouldn’t be anything to fear as stars are so far apart that they would not collide with each other. However, earlier simulations showed our own solar system being ejected farther from the galactic core than our current location.
That wouldn’t necessarily matter for humankind or the Earth itself as the Sun will have exhausted its fuel supply by then. And in the process of dying will have first grown into a red giant, swallowing Mercury, Venus and even if it doesn’t get Earth, our planet’s oceans would’ve been boiled off and the surface scorched to a crisp.
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