Andromeda galaxy has had a violent past that scientists believe will culminate only when it consumes the Milky Way Galaxy. According to research, the powerful past of the Andromeda has been a witness to how it ate up all the smaller galaxies near it. And they say that it will go on asserting its power by swallowing the galaxy where the Earth is a part of.
The astronomers were able to piece together a horrible past by looking at the leftovers of the galaxies that were consumed from the large stream of stars in outer space. They were able to trace down the trail of the number of galaxies Andromeda has eaten in the last billion years, before it could destroy the Milky Way. They expect this terrible scenario to happen in the next four billion years.
During the research, the astronomers were able to shed some light on what has happened in the last 10 billion years. The Andromeda was just forming, and the faint traces of the smaller galaxies near it are the only ones left to be seen to this day. The astronomers remain hopeful that the research would show how this galaxy will eventually be swallowed into oblivion. The study aims to show how the planet and everything else in this galaxy will come to an end.
In the process, however, it also opens up the mystery of how and why the Andromeda is eating up the galaxies surrounding it. Why is it out to destroy other galaxies?
"The Milky Way galaxy is currently in collision course with the Andromeda. In about four billion years, we can expect the two galaxies to collide," said Dr. Mackey, a researcher from the School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University. The study is aimed at showing the world what this galaxy may be up against. It shows Milky Way's ultimate fate.
"Andromeda comes with a complex stellar halo, a clear indicator of how it cannibalized many other galaxies in the past. Some may even be bigger than it is," Dr. Mackey added. The report of this study was recently published in the journal Nature.
It narrates how the team of researchers looked into globular clusters, a clump of dense stars. That was how the scientists were able to collect fossils of dead galaxies. These were signs of what was once a feast, during which, Andromeda swallowed whole the galaxies surrounding it. They used these fossils to understand what these galaxies were before they were consumed. It aims to shed light on the ancient lives and deaths.
"Tracing the remains of what a galaxy once was, the team was able to recreate the process of how Andromeda drew them closer and swallowed them whole," Dr. Mackey said.
While this discovery helps astronomers predict what would happen in the future, it also opens the doors to more questions to answer and mysteries to unfold. Researchers of the new study believes that the new information they've gathered will help people learn more about the galaxy and how it will continue to evolve.
