The neighboring Andromeda Galaxy is hurtling towards the Milky Way, potentially changing the night sky as seen from Earth.
According to RT, observations over many years from the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that the Andromeda Galaxy is traveling towards the Milky Way Galaxy (the galaxy that contains Earth) at a speed of 400,000 km/h. It will take approximately 4 billion years for Andromeda to come close to the Milky Way, and the merger will be completed in about 6 billion years from now.
Simulation of the merger between the Milky Way and Andromeda. (Image: NASA).
“The Andromeda Galaxy is hurtling towards us. The two galaxies will collide and merge, forming a new supergalaxy,” said Roeland van der Marel, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA, and author of the study.
The newly formed galaxy will likely have an elliptical shape instead of the spiral shape of the Milky Way. This new supergalaxy will also change the night sky as viewed from Earth. However, the chances of the Sun and Earth colliding with stars or planets from Andromeda are very low due to the vast spaces between the two galaxies.
Earth could easily survive this galactic merger. Even at that speed, the event will unfold over about two billion years. The Milky Way and Andromeda are roughly the same size and age (10 billion years). They are sometimes considered a pair of twin galaxies, making it difficult to determine which galaxy will be more adversely affected by the collision.
After the collision concludes, the Sun will continue to shine for another two billion years. However, by that time, it will become too large and too hot for humans to survive on Earth without advanced technology.
