Milky Way Doomed to Crash with Andromeda
Discussion
http://news.discovery.com/space/milky-way-andromed...
said:
"THE GIST
Astronomers have long known that the Milky Way and Andromeda are barrelling toward one another.
Our solar system will likely get booted out to a different position in the new galaxy.
The collision will change our night sky dramatically. If any humans are still around.
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.
NEWS: Setting the Galaxy’s Age
"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."
Findings bolster the argument that Dark Energy is the reason our universe is expanding. 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.
Van der Marel and his colleagues used NASA's Hubble space telescope to repeatedly observe select regions of Andromeda over a seven-year period. They were able to measure the galaxy's sideways (or tangential) motion, and they found that Andromeda and the Milky Way are indeed bound for a direct hit.
"The Andromeda galaxy is heading straight in our direction," van der Marel said. "The galaxies will collide, and they will merge together to form one new galaxy." He and his colleagues also created a video simulation of the Milky Way crash into Andromeda.
That merger, van der Marel added, begins in 4 billion years and will be complete by about 6 billion years from now.
A future cosmic crash
Such a dramatic event has never occurred in the long history of our Milky Way, which likely began taking shape about 13.5 billion years ago.
"The Milky Way has had, probably, quite a lot of small, minor mergers," said Rosemary Wyse of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who was not affiliated with the new study. "But this major merger will be unprecedented."
The merger poses no real danger of destroying Earth or our solar system, researchers said. The stretches of empty space separating the stars in the two galaxies will remain vast, making any collisions or serious perturbations unlikely.
However, our solar system will likely get booted out to a different position in the new galaxy, which some astronomers have dubbed the "Milkomeda galaxy." Simulations show that we'll probably occupy a spot much farther from the galactic core than we do today, researchers said.
A new night sky
And the collision will change our night sky dramatically. If any humans are still around 3.75 billion years from now, they'll see Andromeda fill their field of view as it sidles up next to our own Milky Way. For the next few billion years after that, stargazers will be spellbound by the merger, which will trigger intense bouts of star formation.
Finally, by about 7 billion years from now, the bright core of the elliptical Milkomeda galaxy will dominate the night sky, researchers said. (The odds of viewing this sight, at least from Earth, are pretty slim, since the sun is predicted to bloat into a huge red giant 5 or 6 billion years from now.)
In its 22-year history, Hubble has revolutionized the way humanity views the cosmos. The new finding is another step in that process, researchers said.
"What's really exciting about the current measurements is, it's not about historical astronomy; it's not about looking back in time, understanding the expansion of the universe," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate and a former astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions that repaired Hubble .
"It's looking forward in time, which is another very human story," Grunsfeld added. "We like to know about our past — where did we come from? We very much like to know where we're going."
If there is any life then, just imagine what would be seen. Brilliant. Astronomers have long known that the Milky Way and Andromeda are barrelling toward one another.
Our solar system will likely get booted out to a different position in the new galaxy.
The collision will change our night sky dramatically. If any humans are still around.
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.
NEWS: Setting the Galaxy’s Age
"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."
Findings bolster the argument that Dark Energy is the reason our universe is expanding. 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.
Van der Marel and his colleagues used NASA's Hubble space telescope to repeatedly observe select regions of Andromeda over a seven-year period. They were able to measure the galaxy's sideways (or tangential) motion, and they found that Andromeda and the Milky Way are indeed bound for a direct hit.
"The Andromeda galaxy is heading straight in our direction," van der Marel said. "The galaxies will collide, and they will merge together to form one new galaxy." He and his colleagues also created a video simulation of the Milky Way crash into Andromeda.
That merger, van der Marel added, begins in 4 billion years and will be complete by about 6 billion years from now.
A future cosmic crash
Such a dramatic event has never occurred in the long history of our Milky Way, which likely began taking shape about 13.5 billion years ago.
"The Milky Way has had, probably, quite a lot of small, minor mergers," said Rosemary Wyse of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who was not affiliated with the new study. "But this major merger will be unprecedented."
The merger poses no real danger of destroying Earth or our solar system, researchers said. The stretches of empty space separating the stars in the two galaxies will remain vast, making any collisions or serious perturbations unlikely.
However, our solar system will likely get booted out to a different position in the new galaxy, which some astronomers have dubbed the "Milkomeda galaxy." Simulations show that we'll probably occupy a spot much farther from the galactic core than we do today, researchers said.
A new night sky
And the collision will change our night sky dramatically. If any humans are still around 3.75 billion years from now, they'll see Andromeda fill their field of view as it sidles up next to our own Milky Way. For the next few billion years after that, stargazers will be spellbound by the merger, which will trigger intense bouts of star formation.
Finally, by about 7 billion years from now, the bright core of the elliptical Milkomeda galaxy will dominate the night sky, researchers said. (The odds of viewing this sight, at least from Earth, are pretty slim, since the sun is predicted to bloat into a huge red giant 5 or 6 billion years from now.)
In its 22-year history, Hubble has revolutionized the way humanity views the cosmos. The new finding is another step in that process, researchers said.
"What's really exciting about the current measurements is, it's not about historical astronomy; it's not about looking back in time, understanding the expansion of the universe," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate and a former astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions that repaired Hubble .
"It's looking forward in time, which is another very human story," Grunsfeld added. "We like to know about our past — where did we come from? We very much like to know where we're going."
Milky Way thrilled and excited to join with Andromeda
In a statement released yesterday, the Milky Way galaxy said it was very excited to announce a future partnership with it's friend and colleague Andromeda. It went on to say that the partnership offered many synergies and opportunities for growth, but did warn there may be some minor disruption to normal conditions during the merger process.
In a statement released yesterday, the Milky Way galaxy said it was very excited to announce a future partnership with it's friend and colleague Andromeda. It went on to say that the partnership offered many synergies and opportunities for growth, but did warn there may be some minor disruption to normal conditions during the merger process.
ewenm said:
Milky Way thrilled and excited to join with Andromeda
In a statement released yesterday, the Milky Way galaxy said it was very excited to announce a future partnership with it's friend and colleague Andromeda. It went on to say that the partnership offered many synergies and opportunities for growth, but did warn there may be some minor disruption to normal conditions during the merger process.
Thats much better! In a statement released yesterday, the Milky Way galaxy said it was very excited to announce a future partnership with it's friend and colleague Andromeda. It went on to say that the partnership offered many synergies and opportunities for growth, but did warn there may be some minor disruption to normal conditions during the merger process.
Simpo Two said:
Mmm but we know that moon is generic and Moon is specific, also sun and Sun.
So either all galaxies are Milky Ways (the Romans wouldn't have known about other galaxies of course) or it's the name of just ours. Just wondered if our galaxy had a 'proper' astronomical name.
The Galaxy.So either all galaxies are Milky Ways (the Romans wouldn't have known about other galaxies of course) or it's the name of just ours. Just wondered if our galaxy had a 'proper' astronomical name.
For the same reason our moon is called The Moon.
They were the first to be named. It was only later that we discovered that there were other moons and galaxies.
Since the word Galaxy does, in effect, mean "Milky Way", then, in a kind of a way, all other galaxies are "Milky Ways" - nut they are never referred to as such.
Galaxies were only properly identified as massive star systems outside "our" galaxy in the 1920s (through the ground breaking work of Edwin Hubble). Many of them had already been given designations through the system used for identifying "nebulae".
The earliest of these systems is the Messier numbering system, called after an 18th Century French astronomer called Charles Messier who wanted to positively identify and log all "fuzzy objects" in the sky. He was an ardent comet hunter and was fed up thinking he had discovered a new comet only to find he was looking at one of these more familiar fuzzy objects.
He gave these objects an "M" designator. The galaxy in Andromeda is actually known as M31.
Later, more thorough studies used a new numbering system, caled the NGC or New General Catalogue.
Here is a guide to the NGC -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NGC_objects
You will see that the Andromeda Galaxy is also known as NGC 224
Bedazzled said:
One could argue Milky Way refers to only a subset of our Galaxy, as it describes the apparent band of light formed by the greater density of stars in the galactic plane; whereas every star you can see in every direction is in our Galaxy.
A pointless argument. We are going to become a new one post collision so any terminology is temporary. No wonder house prices are stagnant with news like this in the papers.Bedazzled said:
One could argue Milky Way refers to only a subset of our Galaxy, as it describes the apparent band of light formed by the greater density of stars in the galactic plane; whereas every star you can see in every direction is in our Galaxy.
Except that our galaxy is officially referred to now as The Milky Way Galaxy. Originally the term Mily Way only referred to the band of light across the night sky. It was only in the 19th century that the true nature of our galaxy began to be understood and the term Milky Way began to be used for the whole star system, not just the band of light.And it was only in the 1920s that it was realised that outr galaxy was just one of millions of other galaxies.
Going back to the previous point about "naming" other galaxies, in reality most don't really have actual names - there are just too many of them. As I mentioned above, they are all given numbers under the Messier or NGC system. There are a couple of other listing codes used as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_galaxies
If a galaxy has a name, it is sometimes called after its shape (The Whirlpool Galaxy, The Sambrero Galaxy etc) or it is called after an astronomer who discovered something interesting about it. The Andromeda Galaxy is called after the constellation in which it can be found. The Plough actually has three or four galaxies within the confines of the constellation but none of the these galaxies are called The Plough Galaxy or The Great Bear Galaxy.
Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 2nd June 08:37
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