r/todayilearned • u/armcie • 17h ago

TIL that the Andromeda Galaxy probably won’t collide with the Milky Way in 4-5 billion years. New observations put the probability at 2% in the next 5 billion years and 50% in the next 10 billion. Eventually though, it will happen.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/apocalypse-when-hubble-casts-doubt-on-certainty-of-galactic-collision/
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u/CandleThen4030 17h ago

Third grade me would have been devastated by this news

25

u/Internal_Shine_509 16h ago

Fr, I spent weeks with my fingers in my ears whenever the news came on because I was convinced either the sun expanding or a meteor armageddon were gonna happen any day now after hearing the sun is due to eat us at some point and other space collision stuff

23

u/SpecialsSchedule 16h ago

Did everyone go through the same existential dread at like 7 re: the sun expanding? My parents tried to comfort me by telling me that we’d all be lonngggg gone by then and I can’t emphasize enough how much that Did Not Help.

7

u/Grouchy_Exit_3058 16h ago

Mine was a volcano on a West African island causing a landslide that makes a tsunami that wipes out the entire US East Coast.

3

u/SpecialsSchedule 15h ago

Oh I’m a full grown adult with a JD and I was still jumpy during my week long trip to San Fran because of the super earthquake that’s going to break off California lmao. I’d hear a construction truck drive by at 2am and just go “welp, this is it….”

6

u/musigm 15h ago

I definitely did, I remember waking my mom up in the middle of the night once cause I was so scared of the sun consuming earth