A cosmic catacylsm will unfold when the Andromeda Galaxy crashes into the Milky Way – but what could possibly happen to humanity if these two galaxies meet?
The Andromeda Galaxy is possibly located 2.5 million-light years from Earth. But according to astronomers, the galaxy is going towards at the speed of 68.3 miles which is 110 kilometers per second.
When the two galaxies meet, it will be a beautiful sight. They will merge into a much larger elliptical body called Milkomeda.
Unfortunately, life as we know, it will not exist on Earth as this spectacle happens. By that time, the Sun would have run out of fuel, leading it to expand Venus' orbit. And it will make Earth as hot as Mercury.
Astronomer Gemma Lavender said that before the two galaxies collide, the two bodies will fly first past each other without hitting.
Nevertheless, the galaxies will pass closely enough for their gravities to reach out and tear each other apart.
She also discussed the horrifying scenario in the Haynes Owner's Workshop Manual for the Milky Way. Lavender wrote: "Our two galaxies will start ripping chunks out of each other, tidal streams trailing away, their central bars destroyed and their spiral arms twisted this way and that."
"Perhaps there will be a second close encounter after that as they spiral towards each other, and then, in this deathly gravitational embrace, the two disrupted galaxies will ultimately spin back around and literally fall into each other's arms, their stars becoming mingled."
"Regardless of the name, it will be the greatest transformative event in the history of the Milky Way."
Unluckily for us, there is a chance that our Sun will be ejected from the galaxy if Andromeda and Milky Way's gravities started to merge.
Forming of Milkomeda
According to Lavender, there is a 67 percent chance that the Sun will be pushed to the edges of the newly formed Milkomeda. It will scatter stars like skittles.
If this so happens, the Sun and the solar system will be pushed to more than 650,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy.
Just for comparison, our solar system sits for about 26,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy. Lavender stated that: "There is even a 12 percent chance that the Sun could be completely ejected from Milkomeda, left to spend an eternity drifting alone the intergalactic space," she also said that "We would only be swapping galaxies for a short while, as the merger will eventually bring us back together again."
In 2012, astronomers from NASA had a prediction of what the galactic merger would look like in our night skies.
Calling the event a "titanic collision," the United States space agency said that the merger will be happening about four billion years from now.
NASA also agreed that the Sun will likely fling into another part of the galaxy.
Gratefully, the Earth and the rest of the solar system are not in danger of being annihilated.
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