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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
(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. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---