How will the collision of the Andromeda galaxy with the Milky Way affect the night sky on Earth?
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How will the collision of the Andromeda galaxy with the Milky Way affect the night sky on Earth?
When Andromeda slams into the Milky Way, a trillion new stars will light up the night skies above Earth. The cosmic merger, according to NASA, will result in a head-on collision on an unimaginable scale. Andromeda will warp the shape of the Milky Way and our Sun is likely to be punted to a different part of the galaxy.
What will be the result of this collision of galaxies?
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.
When Andromeda crashes into the Milky Way it will form what kind of galaxy?
A series of studies published in 2012 showed that – rather than glancing off each other, as merging galaxies sometimes do – our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy will in fact merge to form a single big elliptical, or football-shaped, galaxy.
What happens when Andromeda collides?
The result of the collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way will be a new, larger galaxy, but rather than being a spiral like its forebears, this new system ends up as a giant elliptical. Interaction with their surroundings means that the pair will spiral inwards, emitting gravitational waves as they do so.
Will the Milky Way and Andromeda collide?
As for the collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda, which is expected to occur in 4.5 billion years, the map charted dark-matter filaments that bridge the two galaxies and that may affect the merger, the team said.
What is after the Milky Way?
The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which, in addition to the Milky Way, also contains the Triangulum Galaxy and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Both the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies lay claim to about a dozen satellite galaxies.