Space & Astronomy

The Milky Way might not collide with the Andromeda galaxy after all

By T.K. Randall
June 3, 2025 ·  3 comments

The future of our galaxy could be very different. Image Credit: NASA; ESA; Z. Levay et al. It was going to be a collision 4 billion years in the making - a meeting of two galaxies that would likely mean the end for our solar system (at least as we know it) and probably the Earth as well.

Now, however, serious doubts have been cast over whether this is actually likely to happen at all.

"We see external galaxies often colliding and merging with other galaxies, sometimes producing the equivalent of cosmic fireworks when gas, driven to the center of the merger remnant, feeds a central black hole emitting an enormous amount of radiation, before irrevocably falling into the hole," said Durham University Professor Carlos Frenk.

"Until now we thought this was the fate that awaited our Milky Way galaxy. We now know that there is a very good chance that we may avoid that scary destiny."This prediction is based on a new study that involved 100,000 computer simulations using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Gaia Space Telescope.

The findings indicate that the chance of a collision is as little as 2 percent.

"While some earlier works had focused on the interaction between the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum galaxy, we also include the effect of the Large Magellanic Cloud," said lead author Dr. Till Sawala.

"Although its mass is only around 15 percent of the Milky Way's, its gravitational pull directed perpendicular to the orbit with Andromeda perturbs the Milky Way's motion enough to significantly reduce the chance of a merger with the Andromeda galaxy."

Source: Independent | Comments (3)

Tags: Milky Way, Galaxy