• Question: When will the Andromeda galaxy hit us?

    Asked by michaelwhu to Adam, Geoff, Rob, Sheila, Suzie on 15 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Adam Tuff

      Adam Tuff answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      I think we’ve got about 3 billion years until that happens – plenty of time to move house!

    • Photo: Robert Simpson

      Robert Simpson answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      The Andromeda galaxy will hit us in about 4 or 5 billion years. If you want to play with colliding galaxies, I recommend http://mergers.galaxyzoo.org/

    • Photo: Sheila Kanani

      Sheila Kanani answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Never I hope! 🙂

      The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are neighbours. Our home is 100,000 light years across, around half the width of Andromeda.

      The Andromeda galaxy is more than 2m light years away so rarely seen by the naked eye.

      They are hurtling towards each other at a million miles an hour and could meet within fewer than 4 billion years.

      However, it is highly unlikely that planets or stars from Andromeda will hit those in the Milky Way. The space between them is equivalent to a football field between grains of sand.

      While the stars and planets will pass each other, clouds of dust and gas will smash into one another, creating enormous shockwaves that force particles together so violently they form new stars!

      This youtube vid shows them colliding:

    • Photo: Suzie Sheehy

      Suzie Sheehy answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      I don’t know (or can’t remember!) but looking in Wikipedia tells me about 4.5 billion years! Nothing to worry about for now then…

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