Calculated by precise measurements of stars in both galaxies. Result will be a huge elliptical galaxy.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/access/id/341186/name/aw_hs-2012-20-a-print.jpg
Milky Way and Andromeda will hit each other head on
- Thread starter Wanderlust
- Start date
Calculated by precise measurements of stars in both galaxies. Result will be a huge elliptical galaxy.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/access/id/341186/name/aw_hs-2012-20-a-print.jpg
This was something scientists have assumed for years, but it's cool to have hard numbers behind it. Too bad we won't be around to tell the Andromedans, "welcome to the neighborhood!"
Slowest. Headbutt. Ever.
Other than that, pretty old news.
Other than that, pretty old news.
I posted this for the hedder
Is Milky Way Zidane or Materazzi?
Knight Templar
Commodore
There is an excellent short story called "The Weapon" about the intelligences across the Milky Way working to prevent this billions of years in the future.
I thought Earth was going to be uninhabitable by a little over 3 billion years from now, so either way no one will be around to see it happen.
It's pity since this is a fascinating topic, galatic collisions like the ones seen in recent observations of older galaxies merging, it would be interesting to see what exactly happens.
I have a couple of animations based on the older "glancing blow" model but a complete larger galaxy, I'd love to know how the SMB's merge/orbit.
It's pity since this is a fascinating topic, galatic collisions like the ones seen in recent observations of older galaxies merging, it would be interesting to see what exactly happens.
I have a couple of animations based on the older "glancing blow" model but a complete larger galaxy, I'd love to know how the SMB's merge/orbit.
Knight Templar
Commodore
Solar exchange dude. Solar exchange.
That is moving a younger star of similar output into our solar system to replace our son.
Takes about one million years IIRC but the mechanics of it are actually easier than terraforming.
Detailed in Dr. Robert Zubrins book "Islands In the Sky".
^ Only in the bizzare world inhabited by Robert Zubrin does a process that takes a million years and involves the transplant of a yellow dwarf star into our solar system "easier than terraforming."
We could just use the TARDIS to toe the earth to another star. There is already precedent for that.
Knight Templar
Commodore
It is easier to move a star than a planet since a star is basically already its own power source. A monstrous fusion reactor.
And exactly what kind of engine will you be attaching to that star?
Long before that's an issue whatever species our descendants have become will be be able to thrive without living on a planet or within a narrow range of distance from a star. There's no guarantee their energy source will operate using physics we currently understand, but they might gather comets or interstellar hydrogen and use the compatible isotopes in a fusion reactor.
The "collision" will happen 4 billion years from now? I thought it was going to be much, much further away than that. As for our sun, around then it'll be either transitioning to a Red Giant or will already have. It might be possible for it to be prevented by whatever is living then which, frankly, won't be a human. It'll be as far from being human as we are from single-celled life.
If you have the technology to move it you would probably have the ability modify it, ie clear out the ash and put new hydrogen in. Stellar Engineering.
I'd just hitch a ride on Rama and head for the L.M.C.
Don't you think we are a little Earth (or Sol) centric? In a few billion years, man will have have moved beyond this star system and made a home elsewhere. It is likely that astronomers in such a future would know more about the collision than our archaic Hubble Telescope. Moving to a system not in the path of the collision would be easy for them.
Man will not exist in a few billion years.