Real Doomsday Scenario Collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies

The Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with its largest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. But although the galaxies are speeding towards each other at a rate of 300,000 miles per hour, the collision won't occur for another three billion years. At this point the galaxies are still 2.2 million light years apart.
amos.indiana.edu...

This is gonna happen a long time from now. Just how long varies with what website you look at ranges from millions to billions they don't really know. I just thought it was interesting. I didn't know about it and don't think a lot of people do. I just seen about it on t.v. and decide to post about it. Who knows though if it will effect humans. Who knows how long we will be around and wether or not the near future gravitational effects of this will cause bad results in the entire galaxy. Science has admitted recently it really don't understand gravity very well at all.

Heres a link to a simulation about 2 mbs you can download that shows what the collision may look like. Interesting.

www.astronomy.com...

Bottom right for link

[edit on 20-6-2004 by Hoppinmad1]

[edit on 20-6-2004 by Hoppinmad1]

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?

Heres from space.com

The sky will grow increasingly jumbled with shreds of black dust, glowing gas, and "superclusters" of brilliant blue stars. Cold, black molecular clouds will be compressed and heated until they burst apart in a firestorm of starbirth. Supernova explosions from the most massive of the newborn stars will pepper the heavens with titanic blasts going off like a string of firecrackers.

As the stars gravitationally settle into their new home, any hint of the Milky Way and Andromeda as majestic spiral galaxies will be gone. Far-future alien skywatchers will gaze into a rich starry sky and look all the way across space into the brilliant core of our newly formed elliptical galaxy
www.space.com...

So yeah they become one big one. Notice this one says 6 billion years. Our sun will already be dead by then and earth a crisp from the expansion of it. Whether you belive in god or not earth has only got a short lifespan considering the overall age of the galaxy.

that's the rat tail galaxy... which was once two seperate galaxies that collided. the effects are quite amazing. i'll find more, different, and better pictures.

the tadpole galaxy


another pair...

anyway, before anyone brings it up... the odds of stars hitting are greater than winning the lottery. and besides, as hoppinmad1 said, our solar system will be gone by then.

also, it's hypothesized that on the otherside of the galaxy there is a smaller galaxy, similar to the magellanic clouds, colliding with the milkyway.

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.