• Question: Do think our galaxy will collide in the near future?

    Asked by to Nate on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Nate Bastian

      Nate Bastian answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Yes, the Milky Way will collide with a large neighbouring galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, in about 2 billion years. This will likely result in the formation of hundreds of millions of new stars (i.e. it will trigger a starburst, similar to what is happening in the Antennae galaxies – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennae_Galaxies). The two galaxies will stick together, and form an entirely new galaxy, an “elliptical” galaxy.

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