Milky Way, Andromeda galaxies set to crash -- in 4 billion years

[microrobert]

Milky Way, Andromeda galaxies set to crash -- in 4 billion years


http://www.trbimg.com/img-4fc81831/turbine/la-sci-sn-milky-way-andromeda-galaxy-hubble-mi-001/600

In this animation depicting what the night sky from Earth might look like 3.75 billion years from now, the Andromeda galaxy fills the field of view and the Milky Way begins to show distortion from Andromeda's gravitational pull.


The Milky Way is set to collide with its closest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope said Thursday. Galactic residents need not brace for impact just yet, however: The predicted collision would take place in 4 billion years.

Hubble: Milky Way, Andromeda galaxy to crash in 4 billion years - latimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-milky-way-andromeda-galaxy-hubble-milkomeda-20120531,0,2464034.story)

[Osprey]

wait, is that what we see from our homes?

[SilverKnight]

wait, is that what we see from our homes?

Nope, even tough the Andromeda galaxy is relative close to ours, it's still hard so find in the skies unless you have a good personal telescope, then yes. What you see as a line of stars concentrated at night is actually the centre of our own galaxy.

Here's how it might look with a "regular telescope", impossible with our own limited eyes.
http://s19.postimage.org/ty5rf1z0j/b07.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

We're about 25,000 light years away from the centre of the Milky Way as compare to Andromeda at 2.5 million light years away. It takes roughly 100,000 light years to travel across our galaxy and to get to Andromeda it will take about 25x that amount!. Those are astonishing numbers indeed.