Astronomers say that there are 50 percent. the probability that the Andromeda galaxy, in the next 10 billion years will collide with the Milky Way and engulf the Earth.
Although this sounds like bad news, this probability is actually lower than scientists previously thought.
If a collision does occur, the planets and stars of both galaxies will merge to form a single supergalaxy.
There is a small chance that our Sun will collide with another star, which could change our position in relation to the Sun and threaten life on Earth, if it still exists at that time.
“Our own Milky Way is generally thought to collide with a neighboring galaxy. This is predicted to happen in about five billion years, the article says. – [Tačiau] there is no certainty that a collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda will occur.”
Andromeda is the nearest large galaxy to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, 2.5 million years away. light years.
Astronomers have long known that Andromeda and the Milky Way are attracted by gravitational forces.
NASA predicted that after about 4.5 billion years they will merge and form a giant “elliptical galaxy”.
However, according to the authors of the new study, the nature of the galaxy merger may depend on an underestimated “complicating factor”.
Specifically, it is possible that there is a strong gravitational influence from other galaxies in the so-called Local Group of galaxies, which can affect the direction of the galaxies.
The Local Group of galaxies is a group of over 30 galaxies that includes both the Milky Way and Andromeda.
Other galaxies in the Local Group of galaxies include the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Triangular Galaxy (M33), NGC 6822, and the dwarf galaxy Leo I.
Based on observations made by the Gaia and Hubble space telescopes, scientists have estimated future scenarios for the evolution of the local group of galaxies over the next 10 billion years. years.
“We found that the other most massive members of the Local Group of galaxies, namely M33 and the Large Magellanic Cloud, clearly and radically affect the orbits of the Milky Way and Andromeda,” they report. “Uncertainty in the current positions, motions and masses of all galaxies allows us to expect different results.”
They conclude that there is “nearly 50% probability” that in the next 10 billion the merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda will not occur.
If the collision does happen, chances are it will happen after our Sun runs out of hydrogen and shuts down.
In the very unlikely event that the Milky Way and Andromeda collided while Earthlings were still living on Earth, we might just survive it.
According to NASA, the Sun and the planets orbiting it will “survive the collision but acquire new coordinates in space.”
Eric Bell, a professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan in the US, who was not involved in the new study, agreed that it is “very likely” that nothing would happen to us in the event of a galactic collision.
“During the merger, the Sun will likely be pushed into a new region of the galaxy, but the Earth and other parts of the Solar System will not be in danger of being destroyed.” However, one of the possible dangers of a galactic merger would be our star colliding (or nearly colliding) with another star, although the probability of this happening is extremely low. A merger of galaxies would be dangerous only because of a slightly increased probability of star collisions,” said E. Bell.
Even a “close pass” with another star would affect our orbit, which Professor Bell said would be “very bad” because a close pass changes the orbit, bringing us closer to or further away from the Sun.
“So we would either fly out of the Solar System (in which case we would slowly freeze over a few months) or be baked by the Sun (which could happen very quickly or take months, depending on the orbit we end up in).”
The new study has been published on arXiv.
Adapted from the Daily Mail.
2024-08-18 20:21:31