Doubts About Heroes, Astronomers Review The Potential Collision Of Andromeda And Bima Sakti

JAKARTA More than a century ago, a number of astronomers discovered the Andromeda galaxy that was traveling towards the solar system. This galaxy is believed to collide with the Milky Way galaxy in the future.

The potential for collisions between galaxies has continued to be observed for decades. One study shows that the sideways motion of the Andromeda galaxy is so small that its collision is believed to occur. Of course this collision will end the human era.

The Milky Way galaxy will collapse when Andromeda crashes into itself. The effect of this collision will lead to a supernova, a stage where stars experience destruction in the form of explosions. The sun can also be thrown into different orbits due to strong impacts.

All of these events are expected to occur in the next four to five billion years, but recent studies have denied the estimated time. A group of researchers said that the Andromeda and the Milky Way collisions would not be that fast.

The international research group, which comes from several countries, took advantage of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Gaia Space Telescope belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA). They stated that the collision opportunity was indeed high, namely tandem.

However, its movement will not be as fast as most people believe. Till Sawala, the study's lead author, said that the two galaxies will collide in the next 10 billion years. This conclusion was drawn based on the latest observational data.

"Even using the latest and most accurate available observational data, the future of the Local Group consisting of several dozen galaxies is still uncertain. Interestingly, we found ... alternative scenarios in which the Milky Way and Andromeda survived unharmed," Sawala said, quoted from NASA's official website.

Astronomers run 100,000 simulations called Monte Carlo simulations. These simulations cover up to 10 billion years into the future. About half of the overall simulations, two galaxies managed to survive as they only passed each other, not collided as predicted.

The distance between the two is not so close in simulation results that it does not cause dynamic friction. The two main galaxies were seen moving orbitally for a very long time, but did not intersect.

However, the results of other simulations show that two galaxies will cross each other within about half a million light-years. Both will join in the future with a gradual orbital decay due to dynamic friction processes.

The study conducted by the researchers also showed the potential for collisions within four to five billion years, but the chances are very small, which is about two percent. For now, fears of Andromeda and the Milky Way collisions could be eliminated due to the estimated time being very far away.