Some prominent previous estimates had predicted the crash would happen significantly sooner, in about 3. Gaia launched in December of to help researchers create the best 3D map of the Milky Way ever constructed. The spacecraft has been precisely monitoring the positions and movements of huge numbers of stars and other cosmic objects; the mission team aims to track more than 1 billion stars by the time Gaia shuts its sharp eyes for good.
Most of the stars Gaia is eyeing are in the Milky Way, but some are in nearby galaxies. In the new study, the researchers tracked a number of stars in our galaxy, in Andromeda also known as M31 and in the spiral Triangulum or M Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The Andromeda galaxy is our largest galactic neighbor. It's just 2. Andromeda and the Milky Way are creeping closer together every minute. Measurements from the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope suggest a different timeline, though. That data indicates the collision might just be a glancing blow 4. Even if that is the case, the galaxies will merge over time, first in a chaotic mess of stars altering each others' orbits.
Eventually, they will settle into one stable mega-galaxy. Today the Milky Way looks like a band across the night sky. Andromeda is a mere light in the distance — the only other galaxy we can see without the help of a telescope. In 2 billion years, Andromeda will loom much larger in the night sky.
About 3. Because galaxies are mostly empty space, they will pass through each other with very few collisions between stars, if any. Not a subscriber? Become one now. Skip to content. Science News Needs You Support nonprofit journalism. By Sid Perkins March 5, at am. Physics Neutron star collisions probably make more gold than other cosmic smashups By Emily Conover November 3, For example a meteorite impact like the one that killed the dinosaurs may kill all life on earth one billion years from now, so that we are not even there to see what happens to human life when andromeda interacts with the milky way.
If the sun was 10 cm wide, Alpha Centauri would be kilometers away. If the sun was an orange, the termination shock, the extreme boundary of the solar system, where the interstellar winds are more consequent than solar wind, is about 1 km diameter. The different stars wouldnt tend to interfere with each other's termination shock boundary.
If the most dense parts of our galaxy are times more star dense than our neighborhood, we are talking about a cloud of oranges, each of which is separated by a kilometer, in the most dense scenario. Most probably it's the dramatic collision of a cloud of oranges each separated by km, the Milky Way in total would be 10 million kilometers across, if the sun was an orange. The collision of the galaxies doesn't change the challenge of transporting life away from our planet, compared to what it already is.
Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What will happen to life on Earth when the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies collide? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 8 months ago. Active 6 years, 1 month ago.
Viewed 33k times. What will happen to life on Earth or human beings on Earth? If we are about to collide in the next 4 billion years then how long before we should take action for interstellar voyage?
Are scientists working on such projects for an interstellar voyage? Improve this question. AmitG AmitG 2 2 gold badges 6 6 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. It will be fun to witness them collide, at least before the shock reaches us, and if you're planning to live that long. The collision with Andromeda might be wonderful thing, many more stars and much greater stellar movement will make inter-stellar travel easier.
The galactic collision might be very good, replenishing the galaxy with new star formation and increasing the number of stars passing not too many light years away. Not harmful but wonderful assuming we're still here in 4 billion years, and assuming no hostile aliens.
Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Are scientists working on such projects for inter-stellar voyage? It's a very, very long way off, but each advance takes us closer to that eventual goal.
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