Photo: Nasa pays homage to Pele by uploading on social media Twitter an image of a spiral galaxy in the Sculptor constellation with the dominant yellow color symbolizing Brazil. (Twitter @NASA)
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – In 2012, NASA issued a warning that one day there would be a collision between the Milky Way galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy.
It will be a major cosmic event that will affect the entire solar system, including Earth. Initially, this event was predicted to occur within 4.5 billion years.
However, according to recent research, the process of this collision has already begun. Report from Earthskyin August 2020, the peer-reviewed Journal of Astrophysics published new research revealing that a collision between our galaxy is in progress.
News about the Andromeda galaxy comes from Project AMIGA, which uses the Hubble Space Telescope to view the outer space environment of the Andromeda galaxy.
This collision would have seen from measurements of the Doppler shift of its spectral lines, that Andromeda was approaching. But such measurements can only tell about the motion.
Therefore, finding out whether our galaxy will be directly affected by this collision requires careful study of the motions of Andromeda’s satellite galaxies.
The Milky Way galaxy could be one with the Andromeda galaxy
Even so, astronomers are still trying to predict what will happen when the two galaxies collide.
That said, the stars in the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies will be affected by the merger.
The Andromeda Galaxy contains about a trillion stars. Meanwhile, the Milky Way has about 300 billion stars. Stars from both galaxies will be ejected into new orbits around the center of the newly merged galaxy. For example, according to the scientists involved in the study in 2012, according to the page LAtimes.
But on the other hand, some say that the result of the collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way will become a new, larger galaxy. But instead of the spiral shape of its predecessor, the new system will be a giant ellipse called the ‘Milkdromeda’.
Andromeda is officially known as Messier 31, or M31. It is about 2.5 million light years from the Milky Way which would make it our closest spiral galaxy.
(tib)
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