Our Galactic Collision Course
The Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies Will Collide Sooner Than Expected
The Andromeda Galaxy lies about 2 million light-years away, a mere footstep in astronomical terms. As our closest galaxy, we have come to know many things about it, including that its current path in the universe sets it on an inevitable collision course with our own galaxy. What hasn't been known until now was how soon that would happen, and it turns out to be a lot sooner than we had anticipated.
In case you're planning on buying huge amounts of galactic collision insurance, take a minute to reflect on what astronomers mean by "soon," as well as what is meant by "collision." First of all, "soon" means within 7 billion years. Which, coincidentally, is when astronomers expect the sun to die out as well.
On its way to dying out, our sun will undergo the changes normal to any mid-sized star. It will expand greatly, sucking in all the planets closest to it, before effectively shutting down into a cool dwarf star. As such, the likelihood of Earth surviving the sun's imminent demise is far less than the likelihood of Earth surviving our imminent galactic collision.
Why? By "collision," astronomers mean that the two galaxies will merge. Outer layers will be violently stripped off, the arms will undergo enormous changes, and the outer haloes will be virtually cleaned out by the force of the "collision." However, close to the interior of the galaxy, where we reside in our solar system, we will be relatively unaffected. The process is very much like the merger of two enormous corporations: The low men on the totem pole are usually found redundant, whereas the people who work closer to the board members are just fine.
However, with the passage of time, eventually all the stars within both galaxies will die out, and the conglomerate will become one big, dead galaxy (AIG, if you like). Still, this inevitability lies so far in the distant future as to be interesting, but not distressing, to the populous at large. After all, unlike AIG, none of us have our stock in an unextinguishable Milky Way.
"Get Out Of The Way! Galactic Collision Will Happen Sooner Than Scientists Thought"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jan/05/galaxy-collision-space-milky-way
www.guardian.co.uk
Published by Lagniappe
Formerly known as Baton Rouge Lagniappe, now just plain Lagniappe roams the world reading, writing, and loving. View profile
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- The Andromeda Galaxy lies about 2 million light-years away, a mere footstep in astronomical terms.
- For astonomers, "soon" means within 7 billion years.
- Those living close to the interior of the galaxy will be relatively unaffected.
1 Comments
Post a CommentWow...what a neat article to read!