A new study challenges predictions our home galaxy the Milky Way will crash into the Andromeda galaxy in 5 billion years.
But a new study predicts there's a nearly 50 per cent chance the galaxies won't collide, or it would likely take much longer than 5 billion years if it did happen.Predictions for the fate of our galaxy are likely to change even more in the coming years as more space telescopes collect data.
It's a fun fact pulled out at parties by every space nerd on the block — our Milky Way galaxy is going to crash into our nearest neighbour in 5 billion years.Even if they did collide, it would probably take much longer — more like 10 billion years.It's a finding that surprised the team, said study co-author Ruby Wright, an astrophysicist at the University of Western Australia. "We expected to confirm the classic picture that the Milky Way and Andromeda merger is a done deal," Dr Wright said.The Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies are the two biggest galaxies in our section of the universe, referred to as the Local Group. Despite being 2.5 million light-years away, Andromeda's huge size, at about 200,000 light-years wide, makes it visible with the naked eye.before we knew it was a separate galaxy, or how far away it was.Astronomers have generally agreed that the two spiral galaxies would crash into each other within 5 billion years, leaving behind an elliptical pile of stars.To predict the fate of the galaxies, the researchers used datasets from the Gaia and Hubble space telescopes to model how they would move over the next 10 billion years. While it's fairly straightforward to learn whether something is getting closer or further in space, it's harder to tell if it's moving in any other directions. "At the moment, the galaxies are being drawn together by the influence of their own gravity, but obviously these galaxies don't exist in isolation," Dr Wright said.While Andromeda and the Milky Way are the biggest players, there are about 100 other smaller galaxies in the Local Group. The largest of these are the Triangulum Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud , a major satellite galaxy of the Milky Way in the southern sky that is visible to the naked eye. The team ran 100,000 different simulations to test how the movements of the different galaxies affected each other. The Large Magellanic Cloud is 160,000 light-years away from Earth. It is the fourth largest galaxy in the Local Group.Although it is only about 15 per cent of the mass of the Milky Way, the study found the LMC could potentially tug our home galaxy out of Andromeda's path. In just under half of the simulations, the galaxies passed each other uneventfully: Andromeda got closer and then further away from the Milky Way, like watching a plane fly across the sky. In only 2 per cent of the simulations, the galaxies got close enough that they'd be pulled together within 5 billion years."The gravity between them is still quite strong, so they'll pass by each other, reach another point where they are very far apart, and then they'll start coming back together again." The simulations predicted that if the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies got within 100,000 light-years of each other, they'd collide. These scenarios, which were roughly half of those modelled, saw the galaxies colliding within 10 billion years. Most simulations, though, predicted the Milky Way and the smaller LMC would merge within 2 billion years.Lisa Harvey-Smith, an astrophysicist at the University of New South Wales who wasn't involved with the study, said predicting the future of Local Group movements was a very difficult thing to do. "It's almost like you're playing snooker, you've got 100 balls on the table, and you smash them and see where they're going to go in 10 billion years," she said. "The problem is the snooker balls are then soft and squishy, and they change shape, and there's all these invisible balls on the table as well — which is dark matter."centred on the collision of the Andromeda galaxy with our own, said the new study was "a really good paper to get people thinking".I took this photo of the Milky Way with my phone — and you could tooBut she suspected that, because of the huge uncertainties involved, future research might come to different conclusions about the Local Group's movements again."After every new telescope is built, we get new data, and then we modify our models.""We're definitely not claiming to have predicted the future with certainty, but rather we're showing it's more uncertain than previously appreciated."Photo shows A graphic collage of a silhouette of a woman, an emergency sign from a hospital and an ambulance.Photo shows A white middle aged man with short hair and a blue suit. He is sitting at a desk reading a reportPhoto shows A group of men and women in conversation as they descend a flight of stairsPhoto shows The region spanning the sky from the constellation of Sagittarius to Scorpius .Photo shows A graphic collage of a silhouette of a woman, an emergency sign from a hospital and an ambulance.
Andromeda Galaxy Local Group Of Galaxies Astronomy When Will The Milky Way Crash With Andromeda
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Cost of emissions from five major Australian resource companies more than $900bn, study findsUS researchers link BHP, Rio Tinto, Santos, Whitehaven Coal and Woodside Energy to specific climate harms over three decades
Read more »
Aussies who ask for a pay rise, get a pay rise, study findsBut how do I ask? Here&x27;s what you need to know.
Read more »
Cornish tin was sold all over Europe 3,000 years ago, say archaeologistsBritish team says new study ‘radically transforms’ understanding of bronze age trade networks
Read more »
'Hidden' gut damage triggered by eating fatty food for just two daysThe physical symptoms of chronic inflammation may not appear for years, a new study found
Read more »
Astronaut's groundbreaking image from space among award-winning Milky Way shotsTravel photography blog Capture the Atlas has published the eighth edition of its annual Milky Way Photogra...
Read more »
Milky Way photographer of the year 2025This year’s collection of images from Capture the Atlas features an extraordinary milestone: a historic photograph of our galaxy taken from the International Space Station by Nasa astronaut Don Pettit, who recently returned from his latest mission onboard the...
Read more »