Similar collision — already in progress
Scientists plan to pin down the date of a galactic collision billions of years in our future by first reaching back to the Big Bang, a feat that will be made possible by the extreme precision of NASA’s planned SIM PlanetQuest mission.
The study will reveal when the Andromeda galaxy will collide with our galaxy, the Milky Way, and will also strip away some of the mystery surrounding dark matter, the unknown substance whose gravity is thought to hold galaxies together.
Proper motion, combined with the values established for radial motion and distance, will enable Ed Shaya and his colleagues to calculate the three-dimensional velocity and direction of motion for each galaxy in the study. Then, after the observation phase of the study is completed, they will run a series of computer models to calculate masses and orbits for each galaxy.
The successful model will also produce an orbital path taking each galaxy from the Big Bang to its present location. Running the model forward into the future will enable Shaya to determine, among other things, when the Milky Way is destined to collide with the Andromeda galaxy.
Until then, you might want to make a note to update your homeowner’s policy in about 6 billion years.
Damn, now I know why I felt no real urgency to have that colonoscopy this year.
We will either kill off each other or run the planet out of resources long before we need to worry about this. Or maybe the latter causes the former.
Duck!
Will we still have to file our tax returns that year?
Duck!
‘Until then, you might want to make a note to update your homeowner’s policy in about 6 billion years.’
Had me worried for a minute, I misread it as 6 MILLION years.
Hey #1. That’s a sh*tty way to react, don’t you think?
#6 – That was just “corny”
Funny to realize how much of this is based on the 1920s work of Edwin Hubble and others, who had no idea the “nebulae” they were trying to understand were actual galaxies in their own right – far less, how many of them were out there. At that time, nobody assumed the universe needed more than one huge gathering of stars.
The actual data we gather, even with these sensitive instruments, are so indirect, their interpretation so grounded in assumptions based on more assumptions, it makes me wonder why people consider Ptolemy’s model overcomplicated.
Then somebody brings up quantum theory and I just go have a beer and watch a sporting event.
No need to use a fancy model. Just ask Pat Robertson!
no, no – give pat some meth, wait 15 min, THEN ask him
when this model gets refined, we can also use it to predict the next French Military Victory, the weather, when the mail will arrive, and possibly, just possibly, take it as far back as to see what really happened to JFK.
#8… that’s when we all find religion 😉
The sky will be beautifull at night in those days, must be quite a sight
IF, the earth is EVEN HERE, anymore…And IF the human species is even Alive…