🌌 The Milky Way may NOT collide with Andromeda in five billion years *phew*

• New study indicates that the Milky Way has a 50 percent chance of avoiding collision with the Andromeda galaxy.
• Previous research suggested that a collision was inevitable within 5 billion years.
• Simulations included four of the largest galaxies in the local galaxy group for more accurate results.

New simulation provides updated forecast

A new simulation conducted by researchers at the University of Helsinki provides an updated picture of the Milky Way's future. The study, titled "Apocalypse When? No Certainty of a Milky Way – Andromeda Collision", shows that there is a 50 percent chance that the Milky Way will avoid a collision with the Andromeda galaxy over the next ten billion years.

This result differs from previous research which indicated that a collision was inevitable within five billion years. Raja GuhaThakurta, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, describes the new study as "a fantastic work" and adds that although a collision is still likely, there is now room for the galaxies to avoid each other.

Complex calculations and new data

The researchers used the latest and best estimates of motion and mass for the four largest galaxies in the local galaxy group. This data was fed into simulations developed by the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University.

Initially, the simulation included only the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, resulting in a collision in slightly less than half of the cases. When the effect of the Triangulum galaxy, the third largest in the local group, was included, the probability of a collision increased to about two-thirds.

The most interesting result came when the researchers included the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and the fourth largest in the local group. This brought the probability of a collision back down to 50 percent.

Future research and long-term consequences

The researchers expect that upcoming data from ESA's Gaia satellite will lead to better velocity and mass estimates for the Milky Way, which may further refine the results.

Even if the two galaxies avoid a collision this time, gravity will eventually have the last word. All galaxies in the local group are gravitationally bound to each other, and over tens of billions of years, they will all end up gathering into a single giant elliptical galaxy.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in ChatGPT. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism (requires the paid version of ChatGPT.)