What a show that would be. Interesting how things in life take so long.

God bless broadband and a download at 250k per second. :-) Very interesting. So they would get wrapped up in each others rotation and become one massive galaxy?

Those are great pics, looking at those reminds me of how astonishing the universe is. How long does it take for them to finish and settle?

Well stars might not collide but think of the gravitational effects on the planets around these stars. There is probably living creatures on a majority of all those stars in our galaxy and andromeda. This will probably end a lot of life. I am not worried though I will have been worm poop about a billion times over by then.

CKK,
Great pics!! Best part of this thread!
I don't think I'm going to spend to much time thinking about the intergalactic collision. I quite sure that humanity will be gone long before the collision happens.

Originally posted by d1k
How long does it take for them to finish and settle?

billions and billions of years, at least.

This is truly astonishing!...

But one thing always bothered me a bit when talking about colliding galaxies... If actually the universe is expanding, and if it all started "from a single point", how come they can find themselves on the same trajectory? Unless even millions of light years of distance between two galaxies is still enough for their gravity to interact and attract each other?

Any idea anyone? cdrkeenkid I'm sure you have your idea about it...

I saw this on TV

they said 2 scenarios could happen

1.the earth is destroyed in the collision

2.the earth is sent out of it's orbit and drifts out of the galaxy into space

I think there might be other possibilities than those just two:

The earth could be keeping an orbit around the sun, but closer, farther or elliptical. It also could be simply destroyed, either "directly" by a collision (very unlikely) or heated gas, or through effects on the sun itself. Who knows for sure what can happen there?

Anyway, this is all supposing that the earth is still existing in 7 billions of years, which is in my view not probable at all. It will be absorbed by our dying sun I believe. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think that our sun in its final stages will grow before its death, up to a point where our orbit (and even further) will be enclosed in its outer layers!

Well, by the way, I don't think any humans will still exist (on earth at least) by then, so why bother? Let's be amazed enough by other collisions...

SpookyVince,

The amos.indiana.edu link in the thread will explain to you how come they're going to collide..

Thanks for pointing that bandit... I must admit I don't necessarily read all links, and quite obviously I missed that one!

So apparently then, gravity can still attract two galaxies together two millions of light-years apart!... Purely amazing...

I had heard before that Andromeda and the Milky Way could be in orbit around each other bud I had never really heard that a collision would occur... Interesting post anyway.

Gravity is a force that doesnt stop, it affects the entire universe... It might slowly decrease overtime in strength (e.g. if you imagine it as a wave, the wave density will decrease as you scatter further from the source, and the amplitude might decrease slightly), but if there is a force stronger than the source of gravity near by (e.g. a star or something) then that is the primary attraction, it's the resultant force..

LOL if you are in a hurry and can’t wait for this apocalypse. There is a binary star system not to far out. That will dance themselves to death in only about 400 million years. The resulting energy release should be more than adequate to microwave the earth and the rest of the solar system to a cinder.

Just thought I would mention it, in case anyone was disappointed.