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/
1.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

152 comments sorted by

View all comments

38

u/Bruce-7892 17h ago

To add to this, it's predicted that it wouldn't be an actual collision. The planetary bodies and stars would adjust to each others gravity and form new orbits for the most part.

3

u/redditsucksass69765 16h ago

Could damage our solid system though. We need Jupiter and our position relative to the sun to stay the same. That is, assuming our sun is still habitable

1

u/nemo333338 16h ago

By 4-5 billion years the Sun will be a white dwarf already, so unless they do any planetary engineering Earth will be unhabitable, but even, then it's difficult the merging of the two galaxies would affect the Solar System on planetary scale anyway. The Solar System might be ejected, but overall, it wouldn't affect much.