WHat exactly will Happen when our milky way galaxy gets swallowed up by The Andromeda Galaxy in about 3 b. yea

Question

WHat exactly will Happen when our milky way galaxy gets swallowed up by The Andromeda Galaxy in about 3 billion years?? I mean wil the stars actually collide? CHAOS will ensue?

Answer 1

Galaxies are mostly empty space so they will actually pass through each other with very few stellar collisions. However the gravitational effects will be severe. Both galaxies could become very distorted and lose their spiral shapes -- many stars could be ejected out into intergalactic space. The orbit of the Earth around the sun could also be affected if a star passes close by...

Answer 2

We still know only so much about the universe we live in, and at this point any predictions are nothing more than a (hopefully lucky) guess.

That said, when the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies finally enter into close proximity to each other, there will be quite a few changes - even though there are tremendous amounts of "empty" space between solar and interstellar masses. How severe these changes will be is anyone's guess; since we don't know how the dark matter involved will interact as these galaxies combine, anything is pretty much possible. I've read scenarios where the Sol system is effected to such a degree that it is either flung to the outlying portions of the "new" galaxy or else is disgorged entirely.

In any event, the end result will be a monster of a galaxy, which will be drawing in all the "Dwarf Galaxies" in the vicinity (much as the Milky Way is doing right now).

Answer 3

3 billion years, 3 1/2 billion years, 4 billion years.........

The Milky Way Galaxy is pretty big in its own right.

Don't forget. there's a whole lotta stars in each galaxy, but there's a whole heckofalot of space between the stars in each galaxy.

Stellar collisions are not very likely. The computer models do suggest that a lot of re-arrangement of "the furniture" can happen. And if the two black holes at the core of each galaxy should "merge" violently, then an actual ripple effect will be felt in the gravitational continuum.

Below is a good resource for more details to your question.

Nice thing, ......we got time. We just can't be sure the technology we develop will end up helping us or killing us first.

Answer 4

Gravity is the culprit behind this collision. Our 2 galaxies will come together. Every galaxy has a HUGE blackhole at its center. The supermassive blackholes of these two galaxies will fuse, and every star and planet that wasn't ejected in the initial collision will become part of the new galaxy. The new galaxy will start to rotate like a normal galaxy and we will continue our long march to join the rest of the gang at the Virgo Supercluster.

Answer 5

The stars themselves would collide, but rarely, because there is so much space between stars. The only thing that would happen as an important event might be that because of the collision, the warping of gravity of the attracting gravitites might cause many stars to fly off into intergallactic space. Also, if supermassive black holes reside on both galaxies, they would fuse together to become much more massive.

Answer 6

Most likely they will simply pass right through each other because there is a lot of space in between! But if they were to merge we would just call it by a new name such as
AndroWay or MilkyMeda!

Answer 7

They will pass through each other and rebound as gravity pulls them back together. There is so much empty space there will actually be very few collisions

Answer 8

Who cares?

Answer 9

It's gonna get messy.