Our galaxy on collision course with Andromeda

[robbie c]

Looks like we are going to collide with with our nearest neighbour

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/galaxy-hit-another-four-billion-years-nasa-195617659.html

looks like its going to be spectacular shame we wont be around to see it

[LukeSkywatcher]

It must be a slow day in the news room because this has been known for yrs.

[Naz]

Not exactly new news, it has been known about for sometime now. Should provide some good images

[zainraza]

Another thing added to the list for fanatics to make a big deal about....

[LukeSkywatcher]

Doesnt this collision tie in with the time scale of the death of our Sun?. I think the Sun will enter its dying phase in about 4 billion yrs.

So if the galaxial collision doesnt destroy the solar system, the dying Sun definitely will.

Either way i am going to be way to old to care.

[Naemeth]

I thought the end of the dying phase was 5 billion away, at 4 though we probably will have evacuated from Earth (or evacuated Earth from it's current orbit, the former being the likely one).

[LukeSkywatcher]

I thought the end of the dying phase was 5 billion away, at 4 though we probably will have evacuated from Earth (or evacuated Earth from it's current orbit, the former being the likely one).

Yep in 5 billion years the Sun will finally die but in 4 billion years the "fun" will start (IIRC).

I personally can not see how or where humans will go to to survive the death of the Sun, but we have 4 billion yrs to come up with a plan.

I'm sure we will come up with something, which to us living right now seems like science fiction.

I do like the idea of humankind surviving and traveling the cosmos in self supporting generaltional straships. They dont even have to go at speeds greater then light, because that is theoretically impossible.

[Naemeth]

Yep in 5 billion years the Sun will finally die but in 4 billion years the "fun" will start (IIRC).

I personally can not see how or where humans will go to to survive the death of the Sun, but we have 4 billion yrs to come up with a plan.

I'm sure we will come up with something, which to us living right now seems like science fiction.

I do like the idea of humankind surviving and traveling the cosmos in self supporting generaltional straships. They dont even have to go at speeds greater then light, because that is theoretically impossible.

I've always wondered why it is theoretically impossible to go faster than the speed of light.

Of course, if we just traveled a few km/s slower than light, we would get places (including Andromeda) very quickly. The obvious bad thing though is that if we came back, 2 million years would have passed, so would we have to keep moving? Hmm....

EDIT: Forget that, looked it up and it pretty much explained it.

[UnderTheRain]

Hey speak for yourself I fully plan on being around to see it!!

No where did I put that time machine...

[LukeSkywatcher]

Of course, if we just traveled a few km/s slower than light, we would get places (including Andromeda) very quickly.

I agree. If we ever manage to travel at speeds even a third of the speed of light that we would get places very quickly.

I dont think one third of the speed of light is impossible. Maybe it is right now but who knows what the future holds.

[Naemeth]

I think it's realistically too expensive, but if Nuclear Fusion is developed to such an extent that it's possible for more than a millionth of a second (or something like this), that should provide enough power to attain pretty much light speed.

[Keiran]

I think we will get there one day. Eventually. Just look at all things developed by humans. The first computer for example. Huge and expensive, and compared to what we have today its useless. Its just a matter of time

[LukeSkywatcher]

Speed of light is 186000 miles a second.

Yikes even a third of that is mind blowing.

[Naemeth]

Come to think of Nuclear Fusion now, won't we effectively be creating a sun? Wouldn't that get rather...erm..hot?

[Auntystatic]

but we have 4 billion yrs to come up with a plan.

Sorry but we don't have nearly that long at all, :confused:the sun gets hotter every year and within 1 billion years the oceans will have long boiled off.

How many more threads are we going to have on this subject, this is the 3rd I have seen and I've only just come on to the board:eek:

[LukeSkywatcher]

Sorry but we don't have nearly that long at all, :confused:the sun gets hotter every year and within 1 billion years the oceans will have long boiled off.

How many more threads are we going to have on this subject, this is the 3rd I have seen and I've only just come on to the board:eek:

I didnt start it, dont blame me.

[Tinker1947]

I was travelling at close to light speed on my motorcycle some 40 years back, the Police and the Judge took a dim view of it and reduce my speed to sub-light for 1 Year....

[Seafury]

AHH I must panic and go and stock up on everything just in case

[Bluey]

I was travelling at close to light speed on my motorcycle some 40 years back, the Police and the Judge took a dim view of it and reduce my speed to sub-light for 1 Year....

You should try it again, by the time a speed camera flashed you would be long gone

Not sure about average speed cameras though.

[weemax]

Of course, if we just traveled a few km/s slower than light, we would get places (including Andromeda) very quickly.

I agree. If we ever manage to travel at speeds even a third of the speed of light that we would get places very quickly.

I dont think one third of the speed of light is impossible. Maybe it is right now but who knows what the future holds.

Yes. We would make it to Andromeda in 2,500,000 (2.5millon) years.

Very quick indeed lol

[Cath]

Yes. We would make it to Andromeda in 2,500,000 (2.5millon) years.

Very quick indeed lol

That would be how long it would seem to those left on Earth, but it's very different for those traveling at the high speed.

Apparently, if you were able to travel at the speed of light then from your point of view you would arrive at your destination instantly, but to an observer who's not moving it would take how ever long it would take for light to reach that destination.

[robbie c]

How many more threads are we going to have on this subject, this is the 3rd I have seen and I've only just come on to the board:eek:

Come on who;s going to start the fourth one

[SeedyF]

I think the news part of this story has been missed. The fact we're going to bump into Andromeda, or the other way round, isn't new I agree, but the recent study has looked at how direct the collision will be. It was looking at whether or not it would be a glancing blow or a full on "collision" and what would happen afterwards.

The link first posted does make that part quite explicit.

[David JM]

I was travelling at close to light speed on my motorcycle some 40 years back, the Police and the Judge took a dim view of it and reduce my speed to sub-light for 1 Year....

Ah, you relied on the old 'but m'lud, with time dilation I was only doing 30mph'?

I read/heard that the density of stars in a galaxy [probably on average] is the same as three grains of sand in a cathedral, so M31 won't 'run into' us as such but merge. I used to have a NASA simulation of two galaxies colliding and the resultant show, but I've lost it. I'll have a look to see if it is online.

[Naemeth]

The only real difference the collision will make is that it might throw the Sun out from where it currently is. If the orbits of the Solar System manage to stay where they are, it shouldn't matter even if we were flying through deep space.