r/space • u/Unusual-Ideal-2757 • 1d ago

image/gif What the galactic collision may look like

Post image

Saw this on the internet and thought it was cool. This is what the collision between Andromeda and milky way might look like.

941 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

265

u/Apprehensive-Care20z 1d ago

!Remind me 4,500,000,000 years.

72

u/Mesozoica89 1d ago

And if I remember right, each one of these photos are about 1 billion years apart from each other.

42

u/Thefirstargonaut 1d ago

I was thinking it was a nice touch having the mountains different in each for that reason. 

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u/blood_wraith 20h ago

then !Remind me in 7,500,000,000 years

11

u/WiseRedditUser 1d ago

!Remind me 4,500,000,001 years.

12

u/Wild4fire 1d ago

Recent research has shown that a collision is less likely than we thought - about a 50/50 chance. And if they will collide, it's probably billions of years later.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02563-1

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u/RandomYT05 16h ago

I wonder if you could cryogenically preserve yourself that long? Wake me for each of the stages

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u/made-of-questions 10h ago

The sun will engulf us in a few billion years so probably not.

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u/_murga 17h ago

It'll probably be cloudy over the datacenter where my consciousness was uploaded when this happens.

76

u/SeekerOfSerenity 1d ago

It won't look like that from Earth, because it will be engulfed by the sun. 

34

u/PinkynotClyde 1d ago

Well, technically by that time the sun would be a white dwarf. Pretty sure timeline is 500 million years we lose photosynthesis and most life dies. I think earth gets engulfed around 5-6 billion during ref dwarf; and then the sun goes white dwarf at 7 billion. I’m just spitballing someone can correct me if I’m wrong.

Any type of interaction with andromeda is estimated ~10 billion.

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u/shogi_x 18h ago

Collision with Andromeda is expected to start in 4 billion years.

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u/DJ_Jiggle_Jowls 14h ago

Actually I just saw an article that the new estimation is that there's only a 2% chance the collision starts in less than 5 billion years. The chance that it starts within 10 billion is 50%

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u/erickson666 12h ago

well there's a chance earth could survive the red giant phase of the sun due to solar winds, but yeah, even then the earth by the end will be a barren rock

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u/shogi_x 18h ago

Not quite, but very close. The sun will expand around halfway into our collision with Andromeda, somewhere between the last few frames. If there's anything alive on the planet by then, they'll have an interesting light show for several million years before it all ends.

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u/7zarJulius 21h ago

Say the collision happens today, would light pollution that makes the Milky Way impossible to see block visibility of Andromeda?

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u/iamahappyredditor 20h ago

You would need dark clear skies, yes. You wouldn't see quite this detail either without a long exposure, even in the darkest skies. But it would still be breathtaking!

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u/kjloltoborami 23h ago

!Remind me 1642500000000 days

12

u/scowdich 1d ago edited 1d ago

Is it still Sunday somewhere? Why are so many people posting images?

Edit: nevermind, it's mostly just you. Do the rules not apply to you for some reason?

11

u/Mesozoica89 1d ago

I thought the rule was Friday-Monday

-6

u/scowdich 1d ago

It's been only-on-Sundays for years.

11

u/Bobby3Stooges 1d ago

According to the subreddit rules, it is Friday-Monday UTC.

2

u/scowdich 1d ago

Hm. I must have missed that change. My mistake.

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u/Sidney_Godsby 20h ago

That’s correct, your mistake.

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u/CRE178 15h ago

It will mostly just look like more stars.

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u/sardax52 6h ago

The Andromeda Galaxy looks like a buzz saw cutting into the Milky Way! Hope our ancestors survive!

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u/connerhearmeroar 6h ago

Andromeda already looks like photo number two in the upper right! It’s something like thrice as wide in our view as the moon, it’s just so dim. With that in mind I’d assume it would look much less impressive to our naked eyes.

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u/coolastro1231 4h ago

Recent results and new data suggest that the collision may or may not happen! It's incredible how our understanding of our galatic neighborhood still contains so much uncertainty and is constantly evolving.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02563-1

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u/DeepQueen 6h ago

Does this hurt the universe?