Astronomers warn there's a 50% chance the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way

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Is THIS how the world will end? Astronomers warn there's a 50% chance the Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way - swallowing Earth in the process

DAILYMAIL.COM
By Jonathan Chadwick
14 August 2024

The end of the world might not be something we enjoy thinking about, but a new study has provided a terrifying glimpse at what could be in store.

Astronomers say there's a 50 per cent chance the Andromeda galaxy – also known as Messier 31 – will collide with the Milky Way in the next 10 billion years, swallowing Earth in the process.

While this sounds like bad news, a 50/50 chance is actually less certain than scientists previously assumed.

If and when the collision occurs, planets and stars in the two galaxies would be flung together, creating one super galaxy known as 'Milkdromeda'.

There's a small chance our sun would collide with another star, which could alter our position in relation to the sun and threaten life on Earth – if it still exists by then.

(more)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13742825/Andromeda-galaxy-collide-Milky.html

[DefiantMassRINO]

Great, another excuse for the insurance company to increase my rates. 

[GtHawk]

What's it matter, all of humanity will be long gone by then, let the insects worry about it.

[Kamaji]

Actually, the odds of a close interaction/pass-through - aka a "collision" - are about 100%, in about 5 billion years.  As a result, the two galaxies will eventually merge, becoming a single gigantic elliptical galaxy.

However, given the density of galaxies, this will not be like watching two freight trains on the same track colliding with each other.

As far as Earth is concerned:

Excluding planetary engineering, by the time the two galaxies collide, the surface of the Earth will have already become far too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life; that is currently estimated to occur in about 0.5 to 1.5 billion years due to gradually increasing luminosity of the Sun; by the time of the collision, the Sun's luminosity will have risen by 35-40%, likely initiating a runaway greenhouse effect on the planet by this time.

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision#Fate_of_the_Solar_System

[Gefn]

It's called Milkdromada


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7WOXFvwbSY&t=9s


Video is really good

In approximately five billion years, our own sun will transition to the red giant phase. When it expands, its outer layers will consume Mercury and Venus and also reach Earth. So this planet won't even be around to see this.

[Free Vulcan]

The Sun will have long went supernova by then, there won't be nothing but dead rock planets.

[Kamaji]

The Sun will have long went supernova by then, there won't be nothing but dead rock planets.

The Sun won't go supernova; it doesn't have sufficient mass.  It'll first become a red giant, which should be happening at about the time of the theorized galactic merger.  Then, once the expanded solar atmosphere has cooled off/blown out into interstellar space, it'll settle down into a white dwarf.

The Earth will have been thoroughly baked by the Sun's expansion - it'll be orbiting within the expanded solar atmosphere - but some of the outer planets will be around, including with their moons.

That being said, humanity will either have gone extinct, or evolved well beyond the need to remain stuck on a single near-star rocky planet, so while the result will probably be devastating to certain nostalgics, assuming the latter scenario, it really won't be of much importance to humanity itself.