It is scientific theory that our star, The Sun only has about 5 billion more years of main sequence left in it. So within that timeframe life on planet Earth either has to find more hospitable environs or face comsic demise...but time on this planet could be even more short. The Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy are on a collision course. Scientists say that our closest local spiral galaxy neighbor Andromeda (Messier object 31) at 2.5-2.9 million light years away is headed straight for the MIlky Way galaxy at 62-87 miles per second. The exact velocity is difficult to pin down but the galaxies will collide in possibly 3 billion years, to form a giant eliptical galaxy. At that time the stars and gasses of Andromeda will be highly visible and likely very beautiful in the Earth's night sky. Simulations reveal that once the colliosion occurs, the two large galaxies will make several passes at each other, likely increasing velocity as the super massive black holes at the center of each spiral play tug of war with each other...finally coming to together in a giant formation once of the stronger of the two singularities wins the match.
It is a possiblity that our Solar system will feel little effects of this. If our system is ejected out onto one of the cosmic tidal tails during the joining. The result would be a spectacular view, billions of more stars in the sky. However stars can and do collide with other stars, if our solar system just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Keep in mind space is extremely vast and there is ample elbow room for wiggling and spreading out, even with the influence of extreme gravity.
Our local group of galaxies consists of about 33 galaxies, the two largest ones listed above, one more large one called The Triangulum galaxy and roughly 30 other smaller galaxies make up our cluster.
-A
PS: Sometimes I just can't get a song out of my head...more often than not it's a Zappa tune. Been mentally and audibly obsessing with this one for a couple days now...Enjoy some Napi and an incredible Zappa solo!
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