My friend was rambling on about a show he was watching on TV. He said they had a very intelligent man make all these calculations. He came up with the conclusion that the Andromeda Galaxy is moving toward the Milky Way Galaxy at a phenomenal rate and will collide with our home galaxy creating a massive black hole. What are your thoughts?
Yes your friend is right (<i>sort of</i>), the Andromeda galaxy is heading our way...There will not really be a <b>collision</b> as the two galaxys will <i>pass through</i> each other...they will probably distort while they continue their orbital dance... and eventually merge.
That is true. Actually it's more accurate to say the Milky Way is moving towards it. Andomeda is bigger. Moving fast yes, but we have a very long way to go. There's no need to put on your helmet just yet.
Andromeda is bigger, greater mass, more gravitational pull. Kinda like if the Sun and the Earth were to collide , you would say the Earth fell into the Sun.
Wow. This is really fascinating. I'm assuming they won't collide for like a million+ years or something like that huh? So we won't get to see itPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Anyway, this would have to drastically affect the conditions on earth wouldn't it? Speed up our orbit and give us 2 suns or something? So this will probably mean the death of earths fertility considering conditions need to be just right. Do they have an estimate as to how far away this event is?
There are many photographic records of galactic collisions to be found. Many are here in past threads of sciforums. The galaxies are mainly open space. Because of this there will be almost no star to star or planet to star collisons except the rare event that will happen just a few times. However, usually both galaxies wind up after the collison with entirely different forms. (shape) Gravity will warp the shape of it. It also recombines and mixes dust clouds and usually starts a new era of star formation.
I remember hearing that the galaxies will not collide center-to-center. I also recall that there are a few theories about the event of a collision: 1: Initial collision (doesn't necessarily mean Earth) 2: Intial collision PLUS the gravitational pull brings them back together for another collision. 3: No collision... possibly pass through each other or miss completely.
I figured each "body"(planet, star, etc) would swirl around untill they sorted themselves out. So eventually the largest star would be in the centre and it would be orbitted by the rest of the bodies. So lets say that andromeda's star was the largest, it would be orbitted by our sun and all the planets would orbit them. I have no knowledge of galaxies and so on, so forgive me if I sound retarded...
When galaxy collide nothing really bad actually happens. The sun will have already gone nova by the time the collision should happen and the earth (if it remains) will be nothing but a cinder. Even so other stars will not collide and planets will remain in there snug orbits. In all an all it is most likely a good thing because the new galaxy will be much larger then the old ones separate. Well some stars may be flung into intergalactic space and suffer a very lonely life span but that’s the price to pay for communion. here a site on this: http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/hp/vo/ava/avapages/G0601andmilwy.html
alot of times, binary star set ups such as this don't last long, the gravity of the larger star pulls matter from the smaller start until the smaller star is fully "eaten" by the larger one. And you are also assuming that a stable orbit between the two stars could be formed, which is fairly doubtfull. Also, given that both galaxies have a large velocity towards each other, they won't "stick together" to form one big galaxy, as you seem to be suggesting here" they would more likely hit and run. Though it could work out the way you describe it, the chances are pretty low. I don't mean to sound condisending, I'm posting fast, still have work to get done. Sorry if the above sounds rude, I don't mean it to.
