Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Andromeda may be Closer than Previously Thought

posted by CoolHand on Monday May 11 2015, @11:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the mmmmm-milky-way dept.

nitehawk214 writes:

This article shows that the future merging of the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies may be sooner than previously thought:

Recent analysis of past observations made by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope have found a massive halo of hot, heavy gas surrounding our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. This expansive mass of material around Andromeda could mean that it will begin merging with the Milky Way ahead of schedule.

In fact, the articles goes on to say the merge may have already begun if the Milky Way contains a similarly sized halo.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Andromeda may be Closer than Previously Thought | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 14 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by q.kontinuum on Monday May 11 2015, @12:18PM

    by q.kontinuum (532) on Monday May 11 2015, @12:18PM (#181437) Journal

    I'm by no means a specialist, but in a documentary I saw they mentioned that some information on the distribution of the dark matter is available. [space.com] I guess if dark matter could be explained by halos around galaxies, we would have estimated the galaxies that much heavier in the first place.

    --
    Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   3