The universe is constantly expanding, space objects are gradually moving away from us, but not all. Scientists have established the approach of the huge Andromeda galaxy to our Milky Way at a speed of 120 km / s. Projects for the collision of galaxies have already been drawn up.
The Milky Way is our home
The Milky Way Galaxy is our home. It is huge, beautiful: it can be seen with the naked eye in the clear night sky. It is represented as a white streak spreading across the sky.
According to the latest data, the diameter of our galaxy is about 130,000 light years. It contains about three hundred billion planets, stars and other celestial bodies. Our solar system is located 28 thousand light-years from the center of the galaxy, on a spiraling concentration of gas and dust - the Orion arm.
Our galaxy has supniks - small galaxies revolving around the giant in their own orbit, regardless of other parts of the Milky Way. According to observations, in billions of years the Milky Way will absorb the small galaxies Large andThe Small Magellanic Cloud, and after a while Andromeda will swallow it up.
Andromeda and the Milky Way
Scientists have confirmed that there will be a collision between the Andromeda galaxies and the Milky Way. These are the two largest systems, which are located at a distance of about 2.5 million light years from each other. The Andromeda Galaxy is located in the constellation of the same name. It can be considered the big brother of the Milky Way.
Andromeda contains a trillion stars (there are about three hundred billion in the Milky Way), the diameter of the galaxy is about 200,000 light years, and ours is half that.
Some scientists claim that our galaxy and Andromeda are very similar. Both the Milky Way and Andromeda are able to unite other smaller galaxies, but as the Universe expands, the galaxies diverge from each other. But these two giants are moving towards each other. The speed of movement is, according to various estimates, from 120 to 200 kilometers per second. As a result of this, scientists concluded that a collision of galaxies will occur. This event will happen in a couple of billion years.
Impact scientists
The collision of galaxies is shown in a video from the Roscosmos television studio. According to scientists, space giants should merge into a single whole. If by the time of the collision of galaxies the Earth will be inhabited by people, they will be able to feel and see this event. According to scientists, the solar system can be thrown further out of our arm of the Milky Way. The planet will fly through a mess of stars, comets, dust.
What happens in a collision
If a collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies suddenly occurs, this will entail the inevitable death of many cosmic bodies: a number of stars will be completely destroyed, some will be thrown out of galaxies, some will be swallowed up by black holes.
The spiral structure of objects will be completely broken, and a new, giant elliptical galaxy will appear in their place. This process is the norm for the evolution of galaxies. The fact that objects are approaching each other has been known to scientists for more than a year. But just now they have done a simulation of the collision of two galaxies.
Space evolution
There are galaxies in the Universe that are in orbits with a common center of mass. Such systems have a central giant galaxy and several satellite objects. During evolution, if the movement of smaller galaxies does not coincide in orbits, then they all begin to rotate around this center. If the orbits of the galaxies are the same, then they will be combined into one large system, while a smaller object will be torn apart. Such collisions are often observed by astronomers. Andromeda is also believed to have collided with a smaller galaxy in the distant past. Our system has also devoured small galaxies.
Collision
The biggest collision of galaxies will not happen soon. Yes, and it is not entirely correct to call this event a collision. This event is more appropriate term "unification". Because galaxies arerarefied interstellar media, planets and stars are unlikely to collide with each other. The two giants will unite, overlapping each other.
Change airspeed
As already mentioned, scientists have long known about the approach of two giant galaxies. Until some time, astronomers could not say with accuracy whether there would be a powerful collision of galaxies or whether they would disperse until they created a mathematical model.
At this stage, there is a variant of the radial change in the speed of Andromeda relative to the Milky Way by measuring it using the Doppler shift of spectral lines from the stars of the galaxy, but it will not be possible to measure the transverse speed. So far, astronomers have been able to determine the approximate speed of movement of galaxies. According to some assumptions, the halo will definitely collide, but the disks themselves may not touch each other. However, other scientists of the world think differently.
When they collide
During the approach of galaxies, their nuclei will spin around each other. During this event, stellar disks will dissipate to the sides of the cores. Approach simulations have shown that this event will occur in about two billion light years.
During the explosion, our solar system will be thrown out of the new galaxy by about thirty thousand light years. There is a possibility that it will move farther away from the middle of galaxies, but this chance is extremely low - about 0.1%.
During simulations, astronomers were able to determinethe probability of a collision of our galaxy with other systems. As a result of observations, it turned out that the Milky Way could collide with M33 (probability - 9%).
Will there be a collision?
Andromeda contains about a billion different celestial bodies: planets and stars, and the Milky Way - only a few hundred billion. According to astronomers, collisions of the Earth and the Sun with other planets and stars are an unlikely event. Most likely, all celestial bodies will be thrown out by the blast when the black holes of galaxies merge.
After this event, other constellations will sparkle in the sky of the Earth, and maybe even another satellite will join it.
During the merger of galaxies, there is usually no collision of stars due to too much distance between them. However, there is gas between them that can heat up and cause the birth of new stars. Dust and gas from interstellar space can be absorbed by existing stars, causing their weight and size to change: supernovae will occur.
While two giant objects reach each other, there will be little gas in their arms: during the movement, all gaseous masses will turn into stars or settle on old bodies. Therefore, no giant explosion will occur, but it will not be smooth either.
Merge model
The first approach of Andromeda to the Milky Way was noticed in 1920 by Edwin Hubble. He assessed the outgoing spectrographic light from Andromeda and made a sensational discovery: the galaxy is moving towards us.
BIn 2012, scientists made approximate calculations of the speed of approach. The data obtained allowed us to calculate the date of the collision of the titans.
Not so long ago, scientists created a model of a future collision. Thomas Cox and Abraham Loeb built a mathematical model that allowed us to determine the impact process and see the fate of our own solar system, Earth.
