Galaxies colliding; it sounds like a spectacular cosmic event, and it is…it is truly beautiful
…to watch anyone.
Being part of a galaxy in the process of collision is not great.
Not great for life as we know it, anyway…
So what if the Milky Way started getting the hots for another galaxy and the gravitational
attraction took hold?
Woah mumma.
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I am Rebecca Felgate and today
we’re asking What if Our Galaxy Collided With Another.
Before we get into this video I just want to remind you guys to hit that thumbs up button
and leave us a comment telling us what you thought to our answer.
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The universe is constantly in motion.
Our galaxy, the Milk Way is constantly rotating and moving through space.
Galaxies contain a lot of mass and have huge gravitational pulls, which is part of the
reason we’re held together so nicely.
However, it is possible, that while in motion, galaxies can become attracted to one another’s
pulls and end up moving towards one another on a collision course.
This is exactly what is predicted for our Galaxy, the Milky Way and our neighbouring
galaxy, Andromena.
According to calculations based off of observations from the Hubble telescope, Andromeda is moving
towards earth at 250,000 miles per hour, however over a distance of around 2.537 million light
years away, it will take around 4 billion years before we intertwine.
And really, intertwining is the right word.
As the process of a galaxy collision is so slow on our earthly timelines, we have never
been able to observe a full galaxy collision, just other galaxies at various states of the
collision process, which means we can’t say for certain what will happen, but we can
do some pretty informed guessing
Our galaxy is made of 100 billion or more stars, and we assume Andromeda is similar.
It is worth noting, by the time our great cosmic collision comes, our sun will be heading
towards its end of life cycle, so human life…on earth anyway...would be likely to already
be over.
Beyond the 100 billion stars, there are a further 100 billion or more planets, so our
galaxy is carrying some serious cargo, and so is Andromeda.
Despite that, when we collide, it won’t be the big all consuming smash you think.
While we may see a few rock on rock collisions from our colliding galaxies, most planets
and stars will remain unscathed because of the vast distance between them.
What is in that space, though, will play a big role.
In the space between stars and planets is a whole load of gas and extra-terrestrial
dust.
The merging of cosmic dust as the galaxies collide would create billions of new stars.
These stars will make up irregular and erratic galaxies, and will expel their gas at quicker
rates than usual, meaning the new galaxies soon become filled with dying red dwarfs.
When we collide, though, it won’t be one big smoosh, it will happen in tidal tails,
or arms, flung outward and intertwining.
From space, this would look like a majestic dance of fireworks.
Once we’re done flinging one another around, and our black holes have had a veritable space
dust feast, we will finally merge to form an Elliptical Galaxy around 2 billion years
after our dance began.
But what will happen to earth?
Well we already know that Humans will probably have left the building at this point.
During the intertwining process, it is likely our sun would be pulled into a new orbit,
taking us along with it.
Assuming our sun hadn’t engulfed us yet, we would have a spectacular view of the lightshow
offered by the collision.
A video from Science TV on Youtube suggests this is what we would see from earth in 3.75
billion years, then 4 billion years, then finally, when the merge is finalised in 6
billion years… but of course, we already know that earth doesn’t have that long left.
Don’t worry you guys, while this may seem like all kinds of cosmic chaos, the timeline
is so vast that it really isn’t a pressing issue, just something to marvel at.
Space, man……
it’s beautiful.
So that is one big question answered for you, how did you like this episode of Life’s
Biggest Questions?
Let me know your thoughts on galaxy collisions in the comments section down below.
Also please don’t forget to leave a big thumbs up and share this video with a friend
who needs to know more about space today!
I am Rebecca Felgate, I’ll catch you guys in the next video, but for now, please do
stay curious, stay alert and never ever stop questioning.