from the Milky-Way-off-Andromeda,-Messier-90-in-the-side-pocket dept.
The ESA (European Space Agency) which operates the Hubble Space Telescope together with NASA (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) announced this month that the distant galaxy Messier 90 is on a collision course with our own Milky Way, and it is speeding up.
As the universe infinitely expands into the void of space from the moment of the Big Bang, light shifts towards the red end of the visible spectrum. But NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a nearby galaxy, Messier 90, shifting to the blue end of the spectrum – a sign it is accelerating towards us.
The vast majority of galaxies are heading away from us, making Messier 90, which is breaking away from the other 1,200 galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, "an incredible rarity."
This puts Messier 90 (60 million light years away) in the company of Andromeda (2.5 million light years) and the Large Magellanic cloud (200,000 light years), both of which which will be colliding with the Milky Way in the next few billion years.
Fortunately galaxy collisions are unlikely to result in any actual stars colliding. According to astronomer Dr Amelie Saintonge of University College London "the probability of two stars colliding is almost zero", so we should be relatively safe from being affected by these collisions billions of years in the future.
This doesn't mean we should sit back however. The sun is likely to make Earth uninhabitable by then through routine heating (the sun gets about 10% brighter every billion years) evaporating our oceans and shifting us into a runaway greenhouse effect similar to what Venus underwent.
Related Coverage
Andromeda may be Closer than Previously Thought
Milky Way to Face a One-two Punch of Galaxy Collisions
Related Stories
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.
Submitted via IRC for takyon
Milky Way to face a one-two punch of galaxy collisions
If our knowledge of galaxy structures was limited to the Milky Way, we'd get a lot of things wrong. The Milky Way, it turns out, is unusual. It's got a smaller central black hole than other galaxies its size; its halo is also smaller and contains less of the heavier elements. Fortunately, we've now looked at enough other galaxies to know that ours is a bit of an oddball. What has been less clear is why.
Luckily, a recent study provides a likely answer: compared to most galaxies, the Milky Way has had a very quiet 10 billion years or so. But the new study suggests we're only a few billion years from that quiet period coming to an end. A collision with a nearby dwarf galaxy should turn the Milky Way into something more typical looking—just in time to have Andromeda smack into it.
The researchers behind the new work, from the UK's Durham University, weren't looking to solve the mysteries of why the Milky Way looks so unusual. Instead, they were intrigued by recent estimates that suggest one of its satellite galaxies might be significantly more massive than thought. A variety of analyses have suggested that the Large Magellanic Cloud has more dark matter than the number of stars it contains would suggest. (Its stellar mass is estimated to be only five percent of the stellar mass of the Milky Way.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @02:44PM (8 children)
We all dead now.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RandomFactor on Monday May 27 2019, @03:21PM
Assuming we don't kill ourselves off in advance, I doubt this will be an insurmountable problem for humanity millions of years from now.
Starlifting [youtube.com] is removing material from the sun to prolong its life (and cool it) and provide lots of raw materials for whatever.
How humanity can survive the death of the sun [youtube.com] - discussion on this starts at 23:00 (right after options for dealing with Gamma Ray Bursts.)
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @03:34PM (2 children)
Trump to the rescue, MMWGA.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Monday May 27 2019, @04:15PM
Space Force to the rescue!
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Monday May 27 2019, @04:41PM
WMWGWGA? :-p
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 27 2019, @06:27PM (3 children)
If it collides with the Milky Way, not only is that unlikely to eject/disturb many stars, the resulting galaxy will have more matter/energy that could be exploited. Cash money.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @11:14PM
Man, I like money.
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Tuesday May 28 2019, @08:46PM (1 child)
Dibs. Called it.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 28 2019, @08:57PM
Galactic Federation wants to know your location.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @03:13PM
Will be a time to sunjump then.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @03:24PM (1 child)
Merica will kill that foreign invader.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @07:51PM
Build the (Galactic) Wall!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @04:11PM (3 children)
Global warming is causing this, of course.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @12:16AM (2 children)
Anti-vaxers too
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @04:08AM (1 child)
Immigrants are to blame!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @04:35AM
Messier 90 GO HOME!
(Score: 3, Touché) by Gaaark on Tuesday May 28 2019, @02:01AM
Literally.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --