BBC News - M31 collides with MW!

[pajr777]

By that time the end of the universe will be a catering experience (Milliways!), and you just zip back in time to when life was tolerable. As they said to Marvin:

"There is a whole new life stretching out ahead of you"

"Oh, no! not another one!"

I've always fancied a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I've always fancied a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster

I gather it is cheaper to get the gold brick and slice of lemon

[Viv]

Daily Mail headline: Galaxy Collision causes petrol queue chaos

Oh no no no - lets not

Really a shame we're not going to see this.

Now about that time machine, we need for certain things ...........

[Cath]

Their will be the odd collision but I can't see many solar systems escaping being pulled and pushed in all sorts of directions by passing stars.

How much could the sun be pulled away from it's fairly steady path by a similar massed star say 0.5 LY away, and wouldn't the orbits of the planets become pretty much squed by said fast moving passing star suddenly pulling our sun off it's normal steady state path?

[661-pete]

Really a shame we're not going to see this.

Now about that time machine, we need for certain things ...........

No need for the time machine: courtesy of the HST, we can see beautiful galaxy-galaxy collisions happening right now:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080224.html

Actually, not 'right now' of course, 300 million years ago really. Perhaps we are looking through a vast 'time machine' after all. But one-way only!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

If the star is fast-moving, the effect is quite small. This is a curious effect of gravitational drag, which becomes larger as the speed gets lower (unlike viscous drag). Also, do not forget, at 0.5 LY the pull of a solar mass star is 1,080,601,256 times smaller than the pull of the sun 8 light minutes away (about 262,980 minutes in half a year, divide by 8 and square the result). Half a light year is REALLY far away.

[661-pete]

We don't have to wait for M31, to find out about close encounters between the Sun and other stars.

Many of you will have heard of Gliese 710 (if not Google it. Must admit, I had to google to recall the number ) Come 1.4 million years - a whole lot sooner than Andromeda - it's scheduled to pass just over 1 LY from us, shine at 1st Magnitude (currently its mag 9.7) and likely to disrupt the Oort cloud (if it's there) wholesale. Lots of fun 'n' games 'n' cometary impacts expected!

[badgerchap]

To be honest, this collision will be over such a chronc timescale that even if there are observers around, they'll never notice anything hapenning. Even when M31 (not Andromeda BBC - she's a constellation not a galaxy) is right on the doorstep, for people at that time it will always have been there, and will be for the remainder of their lives. We are all born and gone again in less than a galactic heartbeat!

[Ponoobersie]

This is good reading everyones thoughts on this process, just reading them and trying to imagine in my head how these events will look and be is mind boggling!!

Not sure if its a shame that no of us here on earth today will be there to witness it, but im sure that one day or night or both someone will be stood in a space craft as Earth is torn apart,burns up, gets smashed up or what ever fate awaits her hey I just hope humanity is able to get completely of earth before this.

[Ponoobersie]

To be honest, this collision will be over such a chronc timescale that even if there are observers around, they'll never notice anything hapenning. Even when M31 (not Andromeda BBC - she's a constellation not a galaxy) is right on the doorstep, for people at that time it will always have been there, and will be for the remainder of their lives. We are all born and gone again in less than a galactic heartbeat!

Thats such a good point, I wonder if when this happens or is happening whether this very thread we are talking in now will still be on record somewhere or any other info/record about us not having another galaxy mixed with ours, so they will know that once upon a time we didnt have another Galaxy smashing into ours?

[badgerchap]

Thats such a good point, I wonder if when this happens or is happening whether this very thread we are talking in now will still be on record somewhere or any other info/record about us not having another galaxy mixed with ours, so they will know that once upon a time we didnt have another Galaxy smashing into ours?

I can just see the BBC headline now:

"Scientists discover Andromedarians are all foreigners, BNP in uproar"

[Cath]

Thats such a good point, I wonder if when this happens or is happening whether this very thread we are talking in now will still be o]n record somewhere or any other info/record about us not having another galaxy mixed with ours, so they will know that once upon a time we didnt have another Galaxy smashing into ours?

I would expect that we would be so far advanced that such primative mumberlings would be meaningless, or that we will no longer be in exitence.

[badgerchap]

I would expect that we would be so far advanced that such primative mumberlings would be meaningless, or that we will no longer be in exitence.

The rest of us may be gone, but you can be pretty sure Bruce Forsyth'll still be knocking around somewhere...

[Ponoobersie]

The rest of us may be gone, but you can be pretty sure Bruce Forsyth'll still be knocking around somewhere...

Haha!!! Good old Brucey! what a legend! haha

[Ponoobersie]

I would expect that we would be so far advanced that such primative mumberlings would be meaningless, or that we will no longer be in exitence.

Another good point, we will probably all be talking via our minds by then...I can see the stressed Eric vien thobbing now...haha:rolleyes:

[Cath]

So long as my sciatica is gone by then I won't mind either way!

[badgerchap]

So long as my sciatica is gone by then I won't mind either way!

If Futurama is to be believed, then you'll just be a head in a jar, so sciatica should be a thing of the past!

[SFlowers]

So what will happen at the end of milkdromeda ? Will everything eventually get sucked into the black hole

I prefer the Andy Way

[pajr777]

It's commonly thought that galactic interactions don't perturb too many stellar systems because of the big gaps between the stars.

Using this logic I should be able to walk through granite as all the atomic nuclei and electrons in my body and the granite are spaced far enough apart to pass right through each other.

Mind boggling thought.. I know the reason this reasoning is flawed is the difference between the nuclear and gravitational force, but it still does nice things to my brain when I try to understand it

Thank goodness we don't understand it all yet, how boring would that be

[Caldwell 14]

I feel quite relaxed about it all

[badgerchap]

Using this logic I should be able to walk through granite as all the atomic nuclei and electrons in my body and the granite are spaced far enough apart to pass right through each other.

Theoretically, you can. The probability of it happening will be something like 10^814201856018365613856081:1, but it is statistically possible.

I wouldn't suggest trying it!

[JamesF]

Theoretically, you can. The probability of it happening will be something like 10^814201856018365613856081:1, but it is statistically possible.

I wouldn't suggest trying it!

Absolutely not. It's *so* embarrassing when you get stuck half-way.

James

[sologuitarist61]

An interesting but well known story.

However I found the link below that story to be more interesting - the one about the Gaia satellite to be launched in 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15242383

[badgerchap]

You'd need a monster dob to do any planetary imaging with that CCD!

[Astro Imp]

Absolutely not. It's *so* embarrassing when you get stuck half-way.

James