Cosmologists have suspected this for a long time. After all,
the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way galaxy are moving toward each other. However, it wasn't 100% certain that Andromeda would hit us head on rather than slipping past us. Well, those
doubts have been laid to rest. Astronomers from NASA have confirmed that
Andromeda will definitely collide with the Milky Way. Fortunately (or
unfortunately, depending on your perspective), this won’t happen for about four
billion years. To make matters more interesting, a third, much smaller galaxy,
called the Triangulum galaxy may also join in the festivities.
About two billion years after the initial crunch, the two
galaxies will combine into one large galaxy, as the following
animation explains.
By the way, very few if any collisions between stars are
expected to occur. Despite the vast numbers of stars in each galaxy, the amount
of empty space is so large that no stars are likely to crash into each other.
In fact, it’s very possible that our solar system will escape the event
unscathed. Of course, the sun will be flung into a different region of the
galaxy, which will undoubtedly have some consequences for anything still living
on Earth. But then again, by that time, the sun will be well on its way to
becoming a white dwarf, so a collision with another galaxy may be the least of
Earth's problems.
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