Only 5 billion years until The Milky Way gets gobbled up

[thesolar65]

Scientists already knew that big galaxies like to chow down on smaller ones -- which is just a cute way of saying that when they collide, the larger galaxy gains the mass of the smaller one.

According to a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, galaxies turn to cannibalism when they get too big to keep growing on their own.

"All galaxies start off small and grow by collecting gas and quite efficiently turning it into stars," Aaron Robotham, a postdoctoral researcher at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and head of the study, said in a statement. "Then every now and then they get completely cannibalized by some larger galaxy."

As galaxies grow, they get worse at making new stars -- but they also have stronger gravity, which helps them pull neighbors into the fold. The Milky Way reached this tipping point "recently," in cosmic terms (read: not at all recently) and will now grow mostly by snacking on the little guys. It's been a while since our neighborhood ate another one, but astronomers can still see the signs of former galaxies that we've digested.

But The Milky Way isn't going to be able to outrun Andromeda. In about 5 billion years we'll collide with the nearby galaxy, which contains at least twice as many stars as our own. To Andromeda, we'll be nothing but a cosmic candy bar.

These cannibalistic mergers will continue until the whole universe is made of just a few gigantic galaxies, but that's a long way off -- a destiny we won't reach until the Universe is many times older than it is today.

 

[hunter_hunted]

We will become Milkydromeda ..... Man what view will that be standing at night and looking directly at the Andromeda. But there will no earth by then either swallowed by Sun or wandering in cold space for eternity

 

[XenoEnsi-14]

Ilyeda sounds better than Milkydromeda.

 

[TheFlyingPretzel]

Let's call the new galaxy, James.

 

[Imran Khan]

koi baat nhi to ROTI de 2

 

[FaujHistorian]

Scientists already knew that big galaxies like to chow down on smaller ones -- which is just a cute way of saying that when they collide, the larger galaxy gains the mass of the smaller one.

According to a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, galaxies turn to cannibalism when they get too big to keep growing on their own.

"All galaxies start off small and grow by collecting gas and quite efficiently turning it into stars," Aaron Robotham, a postdoctoral researcher at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and head of the study, said in a statement. "Then every now and then they get completely cannibalized by some larger galaxy."

As galaxies grow, they get worse at making new stars -- but they also have stronger gravity, which helps them pull neighbors into the fold. The Milky Way reached this tipping point "recently," in cosmic terms (read: not at all recently) and will now grow mostly by snacking on the little guys. It's been a while since our neighborhood ate another one, but astronomers can still see the signs of former galaxies that we've digested.

But The Milky Way isn't going to be able to outrun Andromeda. In about 5 billion years we'll collide with the nearby galaxy, which contains at least twice as many stars as our own. To Andromeda, we'll be nothing but a cosmic candy bar.

These cannibalistic mergers will continue until the whole universe is made of just a few gigantic galaxies, but that's a long way off -- a destiny we won't reach until the Universe is many times older than it is today.

Yes. This will be a 'galactic" event (no pun intended).


However from our vantage point, my future future future future future .......... gran gran gran gran kid in Karachi will at most see a fantastic show up in the heavens.

Nothing to be alarmed about.

Our solar system will most likely not see any kind of disturbance.

that is if our sun is still burning strong. hahaha.

 

[janon]

Our sun would be dead by then, and earth would have been gobbled up by the sun long before that, as it expands as a red giant.

Yes. This will be a 'galactic" event (no pun intended).


However from our vantage point, my future future future future future .......... gran gran gran gran kid in Karachi will at most see a fantastic show up in the heavens.

Nothing to be alarmed about.

Our solar system will most likely not see any kind of disturbance.

that is if our sun is still burning strong. hahaha.

Our solar system won't exist at that time. At least, not in the form it is in now.

 

[FaujHistorian]

Our sun would be dead by then, and earth would have been gobbled up by the sun long before that, as it expands as a red giant.



Our solar system won't exist at that time. At least, not in the form it is in now.

yeap.

Please see the last line.

However you can run the simulations using our solar system

just for the fun of it.

 

[Mattrixx]

Ya only 5 billion years

 

[thesolar65]

koi baat nhi to ROTI de 2
View attachment 63663

Biryani ke saath ROTI???

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

This is how the sky will look like in 3 Billion years time

Life on earth would likely be gone before then

0) Humans gone extinct (due to world war event) likely in 100-1000 years time
1) Virus outbreak 10-40 years time frame
2) Asteroid collision in oceans likely in few million years
3) Expansion of Sun's size eating up close by planets again over 100 million year range

 

[500]

Its very old news. And by the way our Milki Way is not necessary smaller than Andromeda.

Life on earth would likely be gone before then

0) Humans gone extinct (due to world war event) likely in 100-1000 years time
1) Virus outbreak 10-40 years time frame

Human civilization survived for 10,000 so no reason it will extinct due to a war or virus in 1000-40 years.

2) Asteroid collision in oceans likely in few million years

Tens million of years. We will be able to divert it by that time.

3) Expansion of Sun's size eating up close by planets again over 100 million year range

Billions.

Galaxy collision wont affect us at all by the way.

 

[MohitV]

hmmmm so should we start packin ???

 

[NP-complete]

I wonder what life would be like in 4 billion years. One thing is for sure there would be no sex. Humans will evolve out of it by that time. Likely there will be no food as well. People would just take a bit of carbon with water. The molecules of life will form in their bodies as they take energy directly from the stars.

 

[Mosamania]

Oh what am I going to do then? Ah if only the good Doctor was here, we would see how it will turn out.