he milky way and andromeda are on a collision course. when will the collision happen?

by Ms. Lindsay Kunze Jr. 10 min read

In roughly 4.5 billion years' time the Milky Way will smash into the rapidly approaching Andromeda Galaxy, and astronomers are still attempting to predict what it will be like when the two galaxies collide.Mar 20, 2021

Is the Milky Way on a collision course with Andromeda?

The Milky Way is destined to get a major makeover during an encounter with the Andromeda galaxy, predicted to happen 4 billion years from now.

What happens when the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies merge?

Mar 01, 2022 · Perhaps the most well-known collision in the Milky Way’s neighborhood has yet to happen. The massive Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, will smash into us in about 4 …

How long will it take for the Milky Way to collide?

Mar 20, 2021 · O ur galaxy is on a collision course. In roughly 4.5 billion years’ time the Milky Way will smash into the rapidly approaching Andromeda Galaxy, and astronomers are still attempting to predict what it will be like when the two galaxies collide.

Will M33 hit the Milky Way or Andromeda first?

Mar 13, 2019 · The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are on a collision course, and in about 4.5 billion years, they will meet. Now astronomers using the Hubble have provided some visual insight into what that ...

What would happen if Andromeda and Milky Way collide?

Based on current calculations they predict a 50% chance that in a merged galaxy, the Solar System will be swept out three times farther from the galactic core than its current distance. They also predict a 12% chance that the Solar System will be ejected from the new galaxy sometime during the collision.

When Milky Way and Andromeda will collide?

Ultimately that's determined by gravity. Our Milky Way galaxy is destined to collide with our closest large neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, in about five billion years.Dec 1, 2021

What happens when two galaxies collide?

When you're wondering what happens when two galaxies collide, try not to think of objects smashing into each other or violent crashes. Instead, as galaxies collide, new stars are formed as gasses combine, both galaxies lose their shape, and the two galaxies create a new supergalaxy that is elliptical.

Which of these events can happen when galaxies collide?

Merging galaxies can also trigger the creation of new stars. Galaxies are also composed of gas and dust. The gravitational pull of both colliding stars can interact with this materials, creating friction and shock waves that can ignite the formation of new stars.

When will the Milky Way and Andromeda merge?

After a spectacular series of close passes lasting billions of years – and which will distort the structure of both galaxies – a final merger of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way galaxy will occur about 10 billion years from now.

What happens when you die?

In essence when you die you will either bear your punishment yourself, or you believe in Jesus to the point of repentance, and sanctification which are the fruits and evidence of your belief. Or you don't believe and you get what you deserve what we all deserve eternal everlasting punishment away from God.

Who is Chris Lintott?

Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a co-host of BBC's The Sky at Night. We were unable to load Disqus Recommendations. If you are a moderator please see our troubleshooting guide. We were unable to load Disqus.

Can LIGO detect gravitational waves?

The gravitational wave signal of an event like this can’t be detected by LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), which is sensitive only to the merging of lower mass black holes and neutron stars. An artist’s impression of two binary black holes in orbit around each other.

How long will it take for the Milky Way and Andromeda to collide?

Answer by Martin Silvertant, amateur astronomer, researcher, writer, on Quora: The Milky Way and Andromeda will begin their tidal pull in approximately 3.75 billion years, and the Milky Way–Andromeda collision will inevitably occur in approximately 4 billion years.

How much mass does the Milky Way have?

The Milky Way has a mass of an estimated 8.5 × 1011 M☉ (solar mass). Andromeda has approximately 1.23 × 1012 M☉. When the two galaxies merge, in another 2 billion years [1], they will become one huge 2.08 × 1012 M☉ elliptical galaxy called Milkdromeda or Milkomeda.

Overview

The Andromeda–Milky Way collision is a galactic collision predicted to occur in about 4.5 billion years between the two largest galaxies in the Local Group—the Milky Way (which contains the Solar System and Earth) and the Andromeda Galaxy. The stars involved are sufficiently far apart that it is improbable that any of them will individually collide. Some stars will be ejected from the resulting gala…

Certainty

The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 110 kilometres per second (68 mi/s) as indicated by blueshift. However, the lateral speed (measured as proper motion) is very difficult to measure with a precision to draw reasonable conclusions. Until 2012, it was not known whether the possible collision was definitely going to happen or not. But then researchers reported …

Stellar collisions

While the Andromeda Galaxy contains about 1 trillion (10 ) stars and the Milky Way contains about 300 billion (3×10 ), the chance of even two stars colliding is negligible because of the huge distances between the stars. For example, the nearest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, about 4.2 light-years (4.0×10 km; 2.5×10 mi) or 30 million (3×10 ) solar diameters away.
To visualize that scale, if the Sun were a ping-pong ball, Proxima Centauri would be a pea about …

Black hole collisions

The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies each contain a central supermassive black hole (SMBH), these being Sagittarius B* (c. 3.6×10 M☉) and an object within the P2 concentration of Andromeda's nucleus (1–2×10 M☉). These black holes will converge near the centre of the newly formed galaxy over a period that may take millions of years, due to a process known as dynamical friction: as the SMBHs move relative to the surrounding cloud of much less massive stars, gravit…

Fate of the Solar System

Two scientists with the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysicsstated that when, and even whether, the two galaxies collide will depend on Andromeda's transverse velocity. Based on current calculations they predict a 50% chance that in a merged galaxy, the Solar System will be swept out three times farther from the galactic core than its current distance. They also predict a 12% chance that the Solar System will be ejected from the new galaxy sometime during the colli…

Possible triggered stellar events

When two spiral galaxies collide, the hydrogen present on their disks is compressed, producing strong star formation as can be seen on interacting systems like the Antennae Galaxies. In the case of the Andromeda–Milky Way collision, it is believed that there will be little gas remaining in the disks of both galaxies, so the mentioned starburst will be relatively weak, though it still may be enough to form a quasar.

Merger remnant

The galaxy product of the collision has been nicknamed Milkomeda or Milkdromeda. According to simulations, this object is likely to be a giant elliptical galaxy, but with a centre showing less stellar density than current elliptical galaxies. It is, however, possible the resulting object will be a large lenticular or super spiral galaxy, depending on the amount of remaining gas in the Milky Way and Andromeda.

See also

• NGC 2207 and IC 2163
• Mayall's Object