Andromeda-Milky Way collision - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouTube - Andromeda & Milky Way Galaxy Colide, Milky Way's Future
...do you think we would survive?
Of course, it is not going to happen for another 5 billion or so years, but what if it were to happen tomorrow? Would we be able to survive such a massive collision, or would we perish in an ultra-cataclysmic flash of apocalyptic supernova explosions?
If anything came near us enough to impact our solar orbit very much, of course life on Earth wouldn't survive. There would (probably) be no big explosions, though; just a burning up or freezing of all life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMillionaire
...bummer. :(Quote:
Without intervention, by the time that the two galaxies collide, the surface of the Earth will have already become far too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life, which is currently estimated to occur in about 1 billion years due to gradually increasing warmth of the Sun.
As a kid, I constantly feared an impact. :(
lol the hypothesis was 'if it happened tomorrow' - so the earth will be fine, until all of that matter messed with our orbit and etc, throwing everything out of whack before we melted ^_______^
You make it sound like an adorable event. :love:Quote:
Originally Posted by Peegee
I doubt the human race could survive unless we were far away from this planet, which could happen in a billion years.
I'm gonna need to pack my things and leave this planet for another galaxy immediately, then. :(
If it happened tomorrow I'd be happy to be rid of everyone else.
Because I imagine with my exposure to WNY weather, that I can survive anything.
I've heard plenty of debates on this issue. But considering the vast amounts of dead space involved, there's actually very little likelihood that we'd be one of the things anything would collide with. Considering the life on earth probably won't live that long, we won't be affected by this event when it does happen. But if it happened tomorrow, there's so much space between everything, you'd hardly notice if another star came between us and alpha centauri. The odds are surprisingly good. Galaxies may look dense and have billions of stars. But that's in a range of hundreds of thousands of lightyears. One analogy I heard was that if the sun was the size of the tip of a pin, then the galaxy would be the size of america. Another analogy I heard was that if the sun were the size of a baseball, then the next closest star would be in texas. Which is MORE than enough space for a star (or dozens) to fall through without hurting much
Granted gravity and orbits might be skewed a bit. The galaxy as a whole would definitely be impacted. But the planets that would orbit those stars would still be stuck to those stars. Worst case scenario is the dust clouds on the outer reaches of the star's gravitational pull get interrupted and start hailing meteors and comets into the solar system again
I guess if our orbit were to be knocked slightly off balance we'd be feeling that. If it happened tomorrow. Our sun is going to get really big and eat us before it happens for reals though.
If the rapture hasn't happened by then then I'm gonna be pissed :colbert:
>>> I would love to see the galaxies meshing together with my very own eyes, who cares if we survive?..:luca:
I can only imagine seeing the Andromeda galaxy covering the sky at night...
Such collisions are actually surprisingly common; Andromeda is believed to have collided with another galaxy in the past. In this case, it is predicted that the Milky Way and Andromeda will fuse together; thus, it will result in a galaxy merger.
So you can roam the Earth free of the religious?Quote:
Originally Posted by eternal essence
We have plenty of things to worry about between now and then for this to even bother me. Regardless, I anticipate my ascension to a higher plane.
I don't think anyone would noticed if the two galaxies collided. By the time it's over, we'll be long gone!
What do you mean by happen tomorrow? If the collision started tomorrow? Cause it'll be colliding for thousands of years before the collision got to us.
If it happened tomorrow I would force Rod to buy a webcam and he'd whisper sweet nothings to me until the catacalysm.
I'm sure there's also an initial instant impact too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirage
I'm sure that impact would take years to get to us, because we're several light years away from the edge of the galaxy.
Not to mention that, like Vyk said, the gravitational impact on Earth would probably be negligent due to all the dead space between every star. A star would have to come fairly close and be pretty massive to do any damage.
But like others said, the Sun will encompass Earth by the time it happens, so WHO CARES!?
There's no such thing as "instant" when talking about things this vast. Even moving at light speed takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years. If I recall correctly it takes like 2.5 million years or something for the solar system to navigate the perimeter of the Milky Way. Its going to take millions of years for Andromeda to even touch us. And its going to take tens of millions of years for the whole event to pan out. Probably even closer to a billion years for it all to settle back to one giant galaxyQuote:
Originally Posted by SuperMillionaireI'm sure there's also an initial instant impact too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirage
Through what? The invisible ropes connecting everything? The only thing that connects the Milky Way is gravity. Therefore, a large body from the galaxy first has to get close enough for its gravitational field to impact the Earth's orbit around the sun. That would be the "initial" change. If the edge of one galaxy starts going through the edge of the other side of the Milky Way, the Earth won't "feel" a thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMillionaire
There's also no such thing as "instant."
>>> That and Dark matter, which is actually like invisible ropes connecting everything..:luca:Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin
And dark matter interacts with the matter we see by...? Oh yes, gravity. :p
Also remember that gravity itself moves at the speed of light. :p
mmmm, cosmic radiation~
[edit- you guys are boring pedants. Clearly the guy means 'okay, take a state well into the collision, approximate it as steady state, then assume that the andromeda + milky way galaxy collided together approach that steady state instantaneously']
Not quite sure what you're trying to say. But I'm pretty sure it breaks physics :PQuote:
Originally Posted by rubah
That's why it's a hypothetical. If anything the correct answer would be 'I dunno' or 'splat'Quote:
Originally Posted by VykNot quite sure what you're trying to say. But I'm pretty sure it breaks physics :PQuote:
Originally Posted by rubah
I'm not worried, for the Lord is my shepherd and we are His children.
We also don't ever have to worry about overpopulation.
Volcanoes are absolute proof of that theory, Raistlin. After all, they make the landmass larger with runoff and also kill people with awesome explosions!
That's why God made gays.
I thought God made gays so people have someone to hate?
That's just an added bonus.
If we were to colide with a galaxy tommorow hopefully a giant landmass flies close enough to the earth that first we experience weightlessness before the earth's gravity is overcome and we all fall into the sky before we burn/freeze/get squished. Unfortunately people on the opposite side of the earth will just experience more and more gravity. However a select group of people on the side of the earth might get to experience falling sideways
Or the two spiral galaxies merge into a giant rasengan
What? It's just a model.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vyk
No, I got the whole freeze-frame thing. It was still the idea suggesting instantaneous galactic interactions lolQuote:
Originally Posted by rubahWhat? It's just a model.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vyk
Its hard for me to fathom how long these things takes, as the numbers are insanely high. But its also hard for me to imagine, with how massive and vast these things are, even hypothetically, anything happen anywhere remotely close to instantaneous. Or "Tomorrow".
Off-topic: Interesting factoids! To put things in perspective for the curious~ Earth is 93 millions miles away from the sun. Traveling at super-sonic speeds, a jet (if it were capable of flying in a vacuum) would take up to 15 years to reach the sun
Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away. A light year is 9.5 trillion kilometers, almost 6 trillion miles. It would take that jet 978,000 years to travel one light year. One of the Helios probes (Helios 2) is apparently currently the fastest man made object to date (launched in the 70s) at 250,000 km/h (160,000 mp/h). Would take Helios about 4,340 years to travel one light year. Andromeda and the Milky Way are coming together at about twice that speed
Edit: So it takes Andromeda + Milky Way 2,000 something years to take off one unit of that 2.5 million light years. Hence we won't meet for another 4 billion years. Interesting to think that the earth is pretty much right at the half-way point, life-span wise
(I actually just looked up the numbers and did the math myself so if I missed a decimal place somewhere on accident, my apologies. But I'm pretty sure these are right)
I suddenly feel 100 times better. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by ShlupQuack
This troubles me. I do plan on living forever so I must escape this doomed planet.
Meh its never going to happen... So why bother with the WHAT IF.....
besides we'd be dead in seconds ...Like when someone lets go a smelly doozy with out giving us an important evacuation notice and we drop to the ground trying to gasp for air....Then we die....:eep:
There is, however, an initial impact that happen almost instantly.Quote:
Originally Posted by RaistlinThrough what? The invisible ropes connecting everything? The only thing that connects the Milky Way is gravity. Therefore, a large body from the galaxy first has to get close enough for its gravitational field to impact the Earth's orbit around the sun. That would be the "initial" change. If the edge of one galaxy starts going through the edge of the other side of the Milky Way, the Earth won't "feel" a thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMillionaire
There's also no such thing as "instant."
There's also the force of buoyancy, which opposes gravity by keeping objects from sinking.Quote:
Originally Posted by black orb>>> That and Dark matter, which is actually like invisible ropes connecting everything..:luca:Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin
Most certainly indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShlupQuack
That has been discussed before; we might end up colonizing other planets, but are we alone in this universe?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiro