Blogs Mar 24, 2014 at 8:23 am

When Our Galaxy Collides with Andromeda

Charles Mudede
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Comments

1
and will form one day the only universe that can be known. Distant galaxies will be gone, and this one galaxy will be surrounded in blackness.

The universe we have now is the only universe that we've known. On a cosmological timescale, even it is changing. I don't recall Dr. Tyson ever suggesting all galaxies would merge into one, he was just pointing out how even what we think of as our galaxy and its shape will become very different in the future, but we can predict what will happen based on the same Newtonian physics we've been using.

I think you've logically gone off the deep end again.
ChefJoe on March 24, 2014 at 9:15 AM Report this
2
"Distant galaxies will be gone, and this one galaxy will be surrounded in blackness."

This is incorrect. Other galaxies will continue to move further away, but they will be red-shifted, not dark. The sky will look different in 5 billion years, but there will still be star nurseries both in the Milky Way and other galaxies. To the naked eye, were our sun not to expand, the night sky would look similar in luminosity, even though the constellations would be completely different.
on March 24, 2014 at 9:31 AM Report this
3
Galaxy collision in one minute flat by a guy who just finished his PhD at UC-Riverside.
rob! on March 24, 2014 at 9:45 AM Report this
4
Shumba -- lovely word on the tongue. But what does it mean? (Please don't say it's just a typo...)
The Accidental Theologist on March 24, 2014 at 10:17 AM Report this
5
shumba is the king of the jungle. a lion in shona. related to swahili's simba.
Charles Mudede on March 24, 2014 at 10:38 AM Stranger Staff
6
A long time in the future, in a galaxy far far away...
venomlash on March 24, 2014 at 12:19 PM Report this
7
Thanks, Charles -- 'shumba' now in my lexicon. -- L.
The Accidental Theologist on March 24, 2014 at 12:34 PM Report this
8
Surprising revelation about this from last night's Cosmos: The distance between the stars in these galaxies compared to their size means that no stars would collide during the whole incident. People on Earths would be treated to a million year light show with no ill effects. That would be rad.
skweetis on March 24, 2014 at 12:49 PM Report this
9
As long as this new galaxy doesn't have Reapers, I'm good with it.

Pridge Wessea on March 24, 2014 at 8:42 PM Report this
10
Reapers? You mean Reavers?
Matt from Denver on March 24, 2014 at 9:36 PM Report this
11
@10: Reapers are a much bigger threat than those pussies from Firefly.
Knat on March 24, 2014 at 10:46 PM Report this
12
I work at JPL in Pasadena and there are about 1000 people there who could write a better "science column" than this guy. Jesus Seattle, don't you guys have science up there to go along with yoru "tech" and "public transit" options. What a bunch of ...
fotoeve on March 24, 2014 at 11:53 PM Report this
13
@12: Oh, hell, half of America could write a better science article than this. That's not the point. (Nevermind that nobody has ever quite figured out exactly what the point of this is.)
Fifty-Two-Eighty on March 25, 2014 at 4:25 AM Report this
14
@ 11, cool.
Matt from Denver on March 25, 2014 at 6:16 AM Report this

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