Milky Way Galaxy Doomed to Head-On Crash with Andromeda (We'Re DooMed In 4 billion years Alert!! )

SPACE.com ^ | 5/31/12 | Mike Wall

[NormsRevenge]

Four billion years from now, the Milky Way galaxy as we know it will cease to exist.

Our Milky Way is bound for a head-on collision with the similar-sized Andromeda galaxy, researchers announced today (May 31). Over time, the huge galactic smashup will create an entirely new hybrid galaxy, one likely bearing an elliptical shape rather than the Milky Way's trademark spiral-armed disk.

"We do know of other galaxies in the local universe around us that are in the process of colliding and merging," Roeland van der Marel, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, told reporters today. "However, what makes the future merger of the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way so special is that it will happen to us."

Astronomers have long known that the Milky Way and Andromeda, which is also known as M31, are barrelling toward one another at a speed of about 250,000 mph (400,000 kph). They have also long suspected that the two galaxies may slam into each other billions of years down the road. ..

However, such discussions of the future galactic crash have always remained somewhat speculative, because no one had managed to measure Andromeda's sideways motion — a key component of that galaxy's path through space.

But that's no longer the case.

[dila813]

I am sure it has something to do with hot air

[BenLurkin]

Saw the NASA press conference on this. Had to laugh at how seriously some of the reporters were taking the news...as if it mattered.

[fieldmarshaldj]

...Women and minorities hardest hit.

[Miles the Slasher]

Everyone put on your sun glasses and “Don’t Panic” buttons.

[Miles the Slasher]

Everyone put on your sun glasses and “Don’t Panic” buttons.

[wjcsux]

BUSH’S FAULT!!

[The Cajun]

4 billion years, huh.
Guess we don't have to sweat it anymore when the sun becomes a red giant in 5 billion years.

[Boogieman]

The ultimate game of chicken. I’m betting Andromeda will flinch first!

[decal]

I just hope Andromeda Galaxy’s middle name isn’t “Wayne”...

[piasa]

If "4 billion" years sounds like a large number, remember that Obama spent trillions of dollars in less than 3 years.

:-(

[rawcatslyentist]

Nothing a couple o rounds of tzjin-anthony-ks wont cure.

[Little Pig]

So our solar system will have to deal with the risk of being ejected from the galactic system, or at least significantly higher background radiation, long before we ever have to worry about our sun going red-giant.

In other news, the night sky is predicted to be pretty damn spectacular in about 3 billion years, as the Andromeda looms ever larger.

[Partisan Gunslinger]

Our solar system sitting on its side as it orbits the galactic center is a result of a collision in the past. We’re an invader. We made it once, we’ll make it again. lol Of course by then the sun may be at the end of its life.

[jmacusa]

Okay then. You’re our official “Andromeda Warning’’ guy.:-)

[Swordmaker]

Remind me to stay in bed that morning...

[Steve Van Doorn]

speed the milky way galaxy moves through space is about 1,080,000 miles per hour.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NormsRevenge.

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[bigheadfred]

If Obama gets reelected this Crash will never happen.

If you think the SOB is repulsive now....just...wait...

[UCANSEE2]

speed the milky way galaxy moves through space is about 1,080,000 miles per hour.

100,000mph, 250,000 mph, now you say 1,080,000mph.

NEXT BIDDER please.

Seriously, though, exactly HOW was that measured?

[Steve Van Doorn]

It is no blunder the galaxies are not moving directly at one another they are both moving generally in the same direction towards what is called the Great Attractor . Both galaxies are moving at over 1 million miles per hour.
This is one of the studies done to find our velocity.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510106