Andromeda has already ate our sister and was supposed to collide with us. New calculations give milk
Milkomeda is not a matter of course.
It was supposed to be the largest space event in our space area, but fortunately, it should not have occurred so soon.
Scientists already thirteen years ago predictedthat Our galaxy should be fired with the Andromeda galaxy in five billion years.
In the data they made it clear that Andromeda was rushing at a speed of 100 kilometers per second. And in the past She has already knocked out with our sister galaxy.
However, new research is doubting on previous measurements. According to European scientists, the likelihood of a collision is much less than expected. And if it occurs, it will be later than five billion years. Research has published in Nature Astronomy.
The collision is not the same
A collision track of Andromeda and the Milky Way estimated scientists more than a hundred years ago. When watching Andromeda, which is now 2.5 million light -years away from us, they saw subtle changes in the color of her light. This change is called Doppler’s effect and has revealed the speed at which the galaxy is moving in our direction.
However, the galaxies also have their own movement – from our point of view it would seem to move to the side. However, this movement is very difficult to capture and include it in calculations.
Therefore, in a 2012 study, scientists worked with an estimate of the most likely values. They assumed that the own movement of the galaxy was very small, almost negligible.
So it turned out that Andromeda and the Milky Way are very likely to collide.
Scientists did not make a mistake in 2012, but only the calculations did not count some variables that would make their measurements even more accurate.
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This has now been possible thanks to new technologies of a team of scientists from universities in Helsinki, Durhame and Toulouse. They have made more than a hundred thousand simulations based on the latest observations data.
For example, the calculations also included the impact of two other galaxies – galaxies in a triangle that pulls Andromeda slightly in our direction and a large Magellan cloud that pushes Milk route from a collision track.
« After counting all these facts, we found that in about half of the simulated scenarios, the Milky Way and Andromeda do not grace at all over the next 10 billion years, » They write in the text for Conversation Ruby Wright and Alexander Rawlings authors.
In the second half of the simulations, the galaxies collided by up to eight to ten billion years. At this time, the sun will be extinguished long ago.
Galaxia Andromeda is the most massive from the local group of galaxies, which also includes a Milky Way. (Source: NASA/JPL/California Institute of Technology)Milkomeda
New results are an important news for the fate of our galaxy.
« It once seemed to be destined to merge with Andromeda and the creation of a colossal ‘mingle’, » explains in a press release University of Durham Co -author of Research Alis Deason.
« There is now a chance that we will completely avoid this fate, » adds astrophysic.
Even if there were a collision of galaxies in the far future, it would probably not be devastating to the Earth. Among the stellar systems, there are enormous distances and collisions of specific stars or planets are rare in merging galaxies.
In the end, however, Andromeda and the Milky Way would be completely united by gravity and create one long elliptical galaxy. Today both galaxies are spiral.
Andromeda had already survived one collision when she collided with a huge galaxy and sister of the Milky Way about two billion years ago. Only crumbs remained, while Andromeda retained its spiral shape.
The risk of a collision or a new study is not completely averted, as the new data from space can still be altered by the fate of our universe in calculations. With the fate of our galaxy, it can wave his own movement of Andromeda.
« Even small changes in this side movement can make the difference between merging and tight meetings. Future measurements will help to specify this value and bring us closer to a clearer answer, » concludes Wright and Rawlings.
An artistic idea of the form of the Milky Way. (Source: NASA/JPL-CALTECH)DOI: 10.1086/104212
