PARIS — The long-feared cosmic collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda may never occur. New computer simulations reveal that our galaxy has a 50/50 chance of avoiding a disastrous merger with its giant neighbour.
The two galaxies are colliding at 100 kilometres (60 miles) every second. However, recent study reveals that a direct impact is significantly less likely than previously thought.
Researchers ran over 100,000 simulations with new space telescope data. They concluded that a merger within five billion years is extremely implausible.
Till Sawala, lead scientist at the University of Helsinki, outlined the odds. “It’s basically a coin flip,” he remarked. The galaxies may pass within 500,000 light-years of one another. Dark matter might still pull them together, but only after the 8 billion years.
Galactic Fate May Be Delayed for Billions of Years
Even if a collision occurs, Earth will not be present. In around a billion years, our planet will become uninhabitable due to the Sun. “So it could be that our galaxy will end up destroyed,” Sawala speculated. “But it’s also possible that our galaxy and Andromeda will orbit each other for tens of billions of years — we just don’t know.”
The study emphasised that the Milky Way’s fate is still unknown. Earlier estimates relied on less reliable data. They also failed to examine the influence of satellite galaxies.
The European Gaia telescope and NASA’s Hubble space telescope may provide additional insights. According to Sawala, we may have a clearer answer within ten years.
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The outcome may not have a direct impact on our lives, but it piques our interest. “I might prefer the Milky Way not to collide with Andromeda,” said Sawala. “Even though it has absolutely no relevance to my own life — or the lives of my children or great-great-grandchildren.”
Previous research predicted worsening effects. Some speculated that the Sun and Earth could end up in the centre of a merged “Milkomeda” galaxy. We could be dragged into a black hole or thrown into far space.
However, a new study published in Nature Astronomy calls these assumptions into question. It finds there’s only a 50% likelihood of the Milky Way and Andromeda colliding in the next 10 billion years.
