"Our galaxy's neighbor, Andromeda, lies 2.5 million light-years from Earth; however, our two galaxies (Andromeda and the Milky Way) have started to merge."
-Ellie Aronica 11th grade
Our galaxy's neighbor, Andromeda, lies 2.5 million light-years from Earth; however, our two galaxies (Andromeda and the Milky Way) have started to merge. If you take into account the galactic halos of both galaxies, which consists of dust, gas, and stray stars, they have already started to overlap. In the next 4.5 billion years, Andromeda and the Milky Way will fully merge and become one galaxy.
At the moment the Andromeda Galaxy is speeding towards the Milky Way at about 70 miles per second. Andromeda has roughly 1 trillion stars while the Milky Way has around 250 billion stars. Sadly, humanity will most likely not be around to witness this sight. The shape of the joined galaxies will also change the two spiral galaxies into one football-shaped galaxy. As the Andromeda Galaxy races closer to us, it will appear bigger and bigger in our sky. When the two galaxies join together, the collision will make the sky a psychedelic light show.
Andromeda and the Milky Way are not the only galaxies playing a part in this merge. The Triangulum Galaxy will, over time, engage in the galaxies melding together; however, the Triangulum Galaxy will never join the merge. It may strike the Milky Way and continue to dance around us and Andromeda.
Galaxies are merging across the universe and in some cases, when galaxies merge they pass right through each other with no harm done. This is because stars within galaxies are so far apart that they typically don't hit one another while merging.
When the Milky Way and Andromeda meld, stars will smash together and send others into new orbits because both galaxies are so dense. There will be a newly formed galactic center after merging.
As for life on Earth 4 billion years from now, there is a very small chance of human survival due to the fact that earth will be heated up by the sun's temperature. The sun is also evolving and is expected to become a red giant star, meaning that its outer layer will eventually consume the Earth. That is expected to happen 7.5 billion years from now, but the chance of human life existing on Earth during the merge is very slight.
With the new Mars rover, Perseverance, the topic of technical advancements for exploring space has become more relevant. Many new findings and discoveries have been made in 2020 and continue into 2021.
As Andromeda continues to get closer and closer, our world on Earth begins to deteriorate. It’s unfortunate that humans will never see the combining of the galaxies, however, when the merge happens there is a chance of galactic debris hitting Earth and Earth would become burning magma and possibly stop rotating, in which case a whole set of catastrophes would follow such as thousand mile per hour winds that would kill all humans and knock down all structures.
At the moment Andromeda is our galaxy's neighbor but Andromeda grows closer and closer and eventually it will become one with the Milky Way.
Most of this information was found in earthsky.org
At the moment the Andromeda Galaxy is speeding towards the Milky Way at about 70 miles per second. Andromeda has roughly 1 trillion stars while the Milky Way has around 250 billion stars. Sadly, humanity will most likely not be around to witness this sight. The shape of the joined galaxies will also change the two spiral galaxies into one football-shaped galaxy. As the Andromeda Galaxy races closer to us, it will appear bigger and bigger in our sky. When the two galaxies join together, the collision will make the sky a psychedelic light show.
Andromeda and the Milky Way are not the only galaxies playing a part in this merge. The Triangulum Galaxy will, over time, engage in the galaxies melding together; however, the Triangulum Galaxy will never join the merge. It may strike the Milky Way and continue to dance around us and Andromeda.
Galaxies are merging across the universe and in some cases, when galaxies merge they pass right through each other with no harm done. This is because stars within galaxies are so far apart that they typically don't hit one another while merging.
When the Milky Way and Andromeda meld, stars will smash together and send others into new orbits because both galaxies are so dense. There will be a newly formed galactic center after merging.
As for life on Earth 4 billion years from now, there is a very small chance of human survival due to the fact that earth will be heated up by the sun's temperature. The sun is also evolving and is expected to become a red giant star, meaning that its outer layer will eventually consume the Earth. That is expected to happen 7.5 billion years from now, but the chance of human life existing on Earth during the merge is very slight.
With the new Mars rover, Perseverance, the topic of technical advancements for exploring space has become more relevant. Many new findings and discoveries have been made in 2020 and continue into 2021.
As Andromeda continues to get closer and closer, our world on Earth begins to deteriorate. It’s unfortunate that humans will never see the combining of the galaxies, however, when the merge happens there is a chance of galactic debris hitting Earth and Earth would become burning magma and possibly stop rotating, in which case a whole set of catastrophes would follow such as thousand mile per hour winds that would kill all humans and knock down all structures.
At the moment Andromeda is our galaxy's neighbor but Andromeda grows closer and closer and eventually it will become one with the Milky Way.
Most of this information was found in earthsky.org