The collision will take place in four billion years and will throw the stars into new orbits: the collision with another galaxy is inevitable
Catastrophic events happen all the time in space, explosions of a size hard to imagine, collisions at incredible speeds. But, of course, none of these affect our daily lives. We will not even notice the collision between the Milky Way, our galaxy, and the nearby Andromeda, spiral-shaped and with the scientific name of M31. And this collision will happen, for sure. And also in a short time.
What do scientists know about this collision
Scientists have been studying the phenomenon for almost a century: we know that a collision will happen, it is inevitable. Andromeda is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way, and is “only” 2.5 million light years away, which you can turn into kilometers with a mathematical calculation. It is moving toward us very fast, thanks to mutual gravitational attraction and the invisible dark matter that surrounds them both.
The collision will happen in four billion years, which, for astronomical times, is soon. And in recent years, the speed of approach has increased 2000 times. In fact, the galactic gas surrounding the two galaxies has already begun to merge. These gas halos extend for 1.5 million light-years, and are studied by exploiting light from quasars. They are like a bubble, which preserves the memory of past events and from which the gas will be drawn to form the stars of the future.
What will happen to the Earth
First of all it must be said that if the collision will happen in four billion years, we must add two more before the two galaxies merge completely, reshaped by the force of gravity into a single elliptical galaxy similar to those we can observe in deep space. And that already has a name: it will be called Milkomeda.
The stars within the two galaxies, however, are so far apart that they shouldn’t collide with each other. Many, however, will literally be thrown into different orbits because the galaxy’s center of gravitation will change. This will also happen to our Solar System, and therefore to the Earth. But maybe we will not even notice: also because according to some studies in a billion years the Sun will increase the radiation emitted, making our planet uninhabitable. Always in the case that the man has not already thought about it.