Galaxy rushing toward Earth @ 1 million mph

[seeder]

Andromeda smash-up: distant galaxy is rushing towards Earth at one million mph - with no hope of deviation

The Night Sky in February 2016: astronomical events like the Geminids meteor showers hint at the bigger picture - planetary catastrophe

But catastrophic violence awaits us from space on a huge scale in a few billion years. The Andromeda galaxy in the far north lies a comfortable 2.5 million light-years away. But it is rushing towards us, with no hope of deviation, at 250,000 accelerating to a million mph.

When the smash-up comes, few stars in either galaxy will actually collide — because they are so far apart — but their galactic structures will be flung into chaos. Cosmic debris will fly everywhere. There will be massive loss of life.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/nightsky/12123031/night-sky-february-2016-andromeda-milky-way-collision.html

There will be massive loss of life.

Assuming anyones even alive a few billion years from now...

[Imaginarynumber1]

Imagine what the night sky would look like when Andromeda is say, 5000 years away.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Imaginarynumber1

[ChrLzs]

What a load.

1. The approach rate is heavily inflated (it's generally agreed to be about 250,000 mph)

2. By the time it happens (4 billion years) the Earth will have been made uninhabitable by the Sun's dying throes anyway.

3. Most astrophysicists agree that the likelihood of the solar system being affected in any major way is very small indeed.

From this very pretty pdf file:

Simulations show the collision will probably toss our solar system much farther from the galactic core than it is today,

though Earth and the solar system are in no danger of being destroyed. Although the galaxies will plow into one other, stars

inside each galaxy are so far apart that they will not collide with other stars during the encounter. Planetary systems, such

as our solar system.. will likely survive intact.

[Hugh]

This will be great for the predominant technologically advanced species in the Milky Way at that time, as they will now have an entirely new galaxy to explore, without having to travel the huge distance that one would now.