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How many years until the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies collide?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
There are 2 much smaller irregular galaxies that orbit our galaxy called the Magellanic Clouds. These are abbreviated LMC and SMC (large and small Magellianic Cloud). These will one day gradually collide with The Milky Way but it is a long time until that happens; no need to worry. There is also the Andromeda Galaxy which is on a collision course with us.
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoAnswer: They don't really collide. They swirl around each other and eventually merge.
Gravity is what makes it happen.
Answer: Gravity makes the galaxies move; another important consideration is that the distance between galaxies is small, compared to their size. In comparison, it is very unlikely that two stars collide, because distances between them are much, much greater than their diameter.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoThere is, as yet, no way to know whether the possible collision is definitely going to happen or not .Thus, while it is known that the Andromeda galaxy is getting closer to the Milky Way by about 120 km/s, there is no way to tell whether it is going to collide or miss.
Such collisions are relatively common, however. Andromeda, for example, is believed to have collided with at least one other galaxy in the past.
Wiki User
∙ 15y agoYes. There are several Hubble photos showing galaxies in the midst of a collision, and in fact, our own Milky Way galaxy is going to collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 3.5 billion years.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoAcctually scientists theorize that that's how The Big Bang or the start of our universe came to be, two parallel universes colliding.
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoBecause of the tremendous size of the galaxies, the collision will take millions of years.
Some galaxies have been "colliding" for over a billion years as they gradually merged.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoYes, galaxies frequently collide, our own milky way is a result of many galaxies colliding and merging.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoDepends on when a group of stars coalesce together it then becomes a galaxy and not a cluster.
Generally millions of years
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoThere is no irregular galaxy passing close to the Milky Way. But there is a spiral galaxy coming close to the Milky Way, it's called Andromeda.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoAbout 3.5 billion years. We won't be around for it.
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Why do asteroids and meteorites rarely collide with earth?
In a massive galactic collision, the stars much further apart than the water droplets in a rain cloud; the odds that any two stars would collide would be astronomical. However, the number of stars IS "astronomical", in the trillions for a big galaxy like the Milky Way and Andromeda, which WILL collide in about 4 billion years. So it's very possible that at least two such stars will collide, with catastrophic results; in all likelihood, the two stars would start to merge and promptly go nova, destroying them. But as a general rule, stars don't collide.
Will earth get engulfed by a black hole?
No. Or at the very least, we have no indication that any such event is even remotely likely in the foreseeable future. However, we expect the Earth to exist for at least 4 billion years or so, until the Sun goes into its red giant phase. Anything could happen - and in four BILLION years, just about everything is likely to happen! I would note that our Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy, and we sort of expect them to merge in about 3.5 billion years. Since the Andromeda Galaxy probably also has a supermassive black hole at its core - probably similar to the one at the center of the Milky Way - it's at least remotely possible that our solar system could collide with the Andromeda core, and fall in. But that's a long way off, and if anything even remotely resembling humanity still exists then, we will be able to move the Earth out of the way - which we will need to do to avoid the Sun's red giant phase anyway.
Is there any danger of a star crashing into earth in the near future?
None whatsoever. This should be the LAST thing that you worry about.The chance of the Earth colliding with a star, however, will be greatly magnified when the Andromeda Galaxy collides with the Milky Way in approximately 3.5 BILLION years. Please don't worry about this until then.
When was the spiral galaxy discovered?
It wasn't until telescopes that people realized that the band of light reaching across the sky, called the Milky Way since ancient times, was actually made of an immense number of stars. Astronomers still did not really understand what they were seeing until the 20th century, however.Until the 1920s, astronomers thought that what we now know to be our Milky Way Galaxy to be the entire universe, and that our whole universe was a few thousand light years across. Other "spiral nebulae" had been observed, but they were thought to be new star systems forming nearby. After Hubble (the astronomer, not the telescope named for him) observed Cepheid variable stars in the Great Nebula in Andromeda, he realized that the Andromeda "Nebula" was immensley distant, and ennormous in size, and, by extension, the other "spiral nebulae" were also huge and incomprehensibly distant. He called them "island universes", and realized that we were also in one, and that the 'Milky Way' band of stars across the sky was our galaxy's disk, seen from inside. So, even though people have been calling the band of light across the sky the Milky Way for thousands of years, it wasn't until the 1920's that we understood what it was--our galaxy!We can see only a small part of our galaxy in visible light. Since the 1960s, radio astronomers have mapped out the structure of the entire galaxy, and shown it to be a large spiral galaxy of about 100 billion stars; we are in one of the spiral arms about 8 kiloparsecs (25,000 light years) from the center of our galaxy, more or less halfway from the center to the edge.I think Gallileo came across the milky way in the 1600's. The cloudy band we now call the Milky Way has been known since ancient times (it's referenced in various cultural mythologies, for example). However, it was only in the past few centuries that it was properly identified as a galaxy, specifically our own.== == The Milky Way's true age hasn't been discovered. The only knowledge we have is of a meteorite which dates 4.7 billion years ago. And yes, Galileo discovered the odd colors of the Milky Way in the 1600's. If we could escape our galaxy, scientists believe it would look like M-31(The Great Galaxy of Andromeda)I would hesitate to talk about a "discovery" of something that is in plain sight - that people have been seeing for ... well, for as long as there have been people. Like the Sun, or the Moon, or trees, or animals - or the Milky Way.
What is the story of andromeda?
1. a large spiral galaxy visible to the naked eye, 2 million light years away; the largest galaxy in the cluster the "local group" 2. the constellation of the northern hemisphere containing the Andromeda galaxy
What galaxy will eventually collide with milkey way galaxy?
The Milky Way galaxy will collide with Andromeda, but it will take about a 2 billion years until they collide and finish. Earth will not get blown up, but by then, the sun will probably be out of hydrogen and expand. Then earth will be engulfed and all life will die.
How long until the milk way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy collide?
We will be extinct by then; Around 3-4 Billion years...
How long would it take to count all stars in Andromeda galaxy?
Since it is not possible to SEE the stars in Andromeda, it would take forever. Of course, if you can wait 3 billion years until Andromeda collides with the Milky Way, it will be a little easier.
Why do asteroids and meteorites rarely collide with earth?
In a massive galactic collision, the stars much further apart than the water droplets in a rain cloud; the odds that any two stars would collide would be astronomical. However, the number of stars IS "astronomical", in the trillions for a big galaxy like the Milky Way and Andromeda, which WILL collide in about 4 billion years. So it's very possible that at least two such stars will collide, with catastrophic results; in all likelihood, the two stars would start to merge and promptly go nova, destroying them. But as a general rule, stars don't collide.
When galaxies collideno spectacular explosions take placethe two galaxies simply pass through each otherexplain why this is so?
A galaxy is 99.999% empty space; they aren't actually solid. The only time you would see a "spectacular explosion" would be if individual stars within the galaxies were to collide. Which isn't to say that they would pass right through each other; the one thing each galaxy does have is what keeps it together as a galaxy; gravity. When two galaxies collide (which apparently is not particularly uncommon; we have photos of several sets of galaxies that are even now in the middle of their own collisions) each star within the galaxies falls under the gravitational influence of not only the other stars in their own galaxy but also all the gravity of all the stars in the other galaxy. The stars are bent away from their normal paths, each deflecting the other, until they swirl together - or are flung away from the galaxy and into deep space. In fact, many astronomers claim to have identified the traces of at least a few other galaxies within our own; the Milky Way has apparently swallowed some other galaxies.
What is a Magallanic cloud?
The Magellanic clouds are two small galaxies visible in the night sky only from the Southern Hemisphere. Up until 1994 when an even closer one was discovered, they were the closest galaxies to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Magellanic clouds are believed to be in orbit around our galaxy.
What did many astronomers believe about galaxiesin the 1920s?
That the Milky Way is the only existing galaxy populated by millions of sun-like stars. It wasn't until Edwin Hubble's discovery of the Andromeda galaxy in 1922 that everything changed, where we, since his discovery, now know that there are billions of galaxies each containing hundreds upon billions of stars! EDIT: Now I registered! If you want to know more, feel free to contact me!
Will earth get engulfed by a black hole?
No. Or at the very least, we have no indication that any such event is even remotely likely in the foreseeable future. However, we expect the Earth to exist for at least 4 billion years or so, until the Sun goes into its red giant phase. Anything could happen - and in four BILLION years, just about everything is likely to happen! I would note that our Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy, and we sort of expect them to merge in about 3.5 billion years. Since the Andromeda Galaxy probably also has a supermassive black hole at its core - probably similar to the one at the center of the Milky Way - it's at least remotely possible that our solar system could collide with the Andromeda core, and fall in. But that's a long way off, and if anything even remotely resembling humanity still exists then, we will be able to move the Earth out of the way - which we will need to do to avoid the Sun's red giant phase anyway.
How was Andromeda cursed?
Andromeda was not cursed; her mother Cassiopeia boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids - of which the wife of Poseidon, Amphitrite, might have been one - in any case, Poseidon sent a sea monster to ravage the lands until Andromeda's father Cepheus consulted the oracle, who announced that no respite would be found until the king sacrificed his daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. Perseus, returning from slaying Medusa, saw her and fell in love and asked her parents to marry her and they agreed and Perseus killed the monster and freed her.
Is there any danger of a star crashing into earth in the near future?
None whatsoever. This should be the LAST thing that you worry about.The chance of the Earth colliding with a star, however, will be greatly magnified when the Andromeda Galaxy collides with the Milky Way in approximately 3.5 BILLION years. Please don't worry about this until then.
Do gas particles travel in a straight line until they collide with an object?
true
How long is the milky way going to be here?
for ever and ever - until the universe collapses in upon itself and turns back into a grain of sand then expands again in a huge big bang dude that is totaly wrong because the earth will not turn into a grain of sand and then expand again. it will blow up and then a different planet will appear. that is the closed universe theory saying thata all the galaxies will collapses into a grain of sand (or the size of a needles point) and explodes creating a second big bang (or maybe the fifth or tenth) the other theory is the open universe theory saying the planets and universes will contune to drift off actually you could say that when the andromeda galaxy crashes into the milky way and become one galaxy then there would be no more milky way or when dark energy defeats dark matter than the whole universe would rip itself apart and if you were wondering dark matter keeps galaxies together without dark matter there would be no galaxies but dark energy just rips galaxies apart so if dark energy overcomes dark matter the whole universe would be ripped apart Both wrong. The universe will never collapse, as thi big bang is still happening and making the universe bigger. When the andromeda collides with Sol we would'nt be in Sol, due to gravity assist. The gravity assist would be caused by spaceships being shot into space. Apprximately 5.8 million ships going at 1,000,000 mph could move Earth out of Sol at an earlier date. But I wouldn't reccommend that as we would get too far away from the sun, and freeze to death.
