Hubble Shows Us the Future: A Galactic Collision

Milky Way Andromeda Galaxy Collision

Artist’s rendition of our Milky Way galaxy colliding with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Credit: NASA; ESA; A. Feild and R. van der Marel, STScI

Sometime in the far distant future, about 4 billion years from now, our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, as illustrated in this artist’s rendition.

The universe is expanding and accelerating, and collisions between galaxies in close proximity to each other still happen because they are bound by the gravity of the dark matter surrounding them. The Hubble Space Telescope’s deep views of the universe show such encounters between galaxies were more common in the past when the universe was smaller.

A century ago astronomers did not realize that M31 (also known as Messier 31 or the Andromeda Galaxy) was a separate galaxy far beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Edwin Hubble measured its vast distance by uncovering a variable star that served as a “milepost marker.”

Hubble went on to discover the expanding universe where galaxies are rushing away from us, but it has long been known that M31 is moving toward the Milky Way at about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) per hour. That is fast enough to travel from here to the moon in one hour.

46 Comments on "Hubble Shows Us the Future: A Galactic Collision"

  1. Bibhutibhusanpatel | March 19, 2021 at 9:07 am | Reply

    Galaxy M13 and our Milķy way must following the univeŕsal law of galactic motion,and we are having usual Hubble Constant.So nothing to be worried.ĺnçreaße in mass due accumùlation of dark matter with time will not able to crèate sufficient gravitational fòrce to pull them to collide.There are two reasons,which will diminish such fact,1stly with time stars will aĺso extint exhausting fuel cause each galaxy to loss mass,2ndly galaxies will move away from each other to a distance calculated from Hubble’s law with propagatig time.Every thing aŕe to deal sepaŕate and separate with there related cause and effect produced throùgh specified formula.To be mentioned here,expansion of M13 galaxy is simply single phenomenon with single root to have a òbseŕvable value of say 25oooo miles/hour.To get gross result of any calculation one has to add all
    possible known parts of the same.Here qùantity is velocity is a vector has own law to obtain a resultant of many parts(or more than one in number) acting simultaneously at any point of time.

  2. 😂😂😂😂

  3. I love looking at space art.

  4. David L Laidig | March 19, 2021 at 7:24 pm | Reply

    I have read that mathematicly through out the entire pass thru,the statistical chance of any collision is ZERO! Now that is the epitome of BIG!

  5. Bibhutibhusanpatel | March 19, 2021 at 8:59 pm | Reply

    We can treat the Milky way-M31 or Andromeda as one binary system of galaxy safeĺy,takìng the parts of them where expansion are occuring alone.By assuming so,the parameters
    are fìxed for merge of two galaxìes.Now we able to study Milky-meda galaxies system.This resuĺts sole stùdy of ďark matter formed in such conjugation.For this we simply have to measure Hubble Constant of

  6. I thought that you cannot go faster than the speed of light especially in space?!?
    https://youtu.be/A2JCoIGyGxc

    • Nothing here is going faster than light. If you’re referencing the 250,000 miles per hour then that isn’t anywhere near light speed. Light moves at a much more brisk 186,000 miles per second

  7. Just need to be said: the comments above by Bibhutibhusanpatel are gibberish.

  8. Well that’s what I was going to say……dang.

  9. Who really cares if they collide!

  10. They Collied with each other when I get my gf 🥴

  11. The speed of light 186,000 miles a second, far faster than 250,000 miles an hour.

  12. Linda Johnson | March 20, 2021 at 6:08 am | Reply

    THE EARTH REMAINS FOREVER! ECCLESIASTES 1:4

    • The flat earth one that the “holy” book promotes? Is that the one we are talking about? The Bible can not even get Jesus’ life, death and resurrection stories straight among many other mistakes, contradictions and weird stuff that it contains, but somehow it is arrogantly used as a book to contradict science by Christian trolls.

      A lot of times, I hear members of Christ’s flock referring to the Bible as if it was a magical object with some form of power, which often is not even read by them. However, to the religious magical thinker, three thousand year old misogynistic, slave owning, illiterate barbaric societies scriptures written on goat leather parchments by their scribes with feather “pens” and rudimentary ink, dictated by an analphabet “holy” man SOMEHOW are much better than modern astronomy and the cutting edge technology of their ground based or space telescopes. Go figure!?!?

  13. Richard Craig | March 20, 2021 at 7:15 am | Reply

    I like Galaxy and milky way

  14. Hahaha in 4 billion years earth can easily be dead the way we manage things as a super species or humans will be long extinct because we are stupid!!

    I wouldn’t worry about it.

  15. 4 billion years? You had me worried there. I mean, it had been 3 billion years I’d be so worried I’d have to rush finishing my errands.

  16. We are all going to die

  17. You gotta laugh! All these comments about how the two galaxies are, or are not, going to collide. As if it’s going to make a sh*t of difference to anyone. This spec of dust we inhabit will not be around in 4 billion years, certainly not in its current form, we earthlings will see to that.

  18. Randy Abramovitz | March 20, 2021 at 11:03 am | Reply

    What? Me, worry? Our Sun will go Red Dwarf long before any collision and humanity will be long gone from our planet.

  19. George Robinson | March 20, 2021 at 11:04 am | Reply

    How can galaxies collide if the universe is expanding and indeed accelerating, surely this should be impossible?

  20. Jan van Mourik | March 20, 2021 at 11:30 am | Reply

    The text Patel sent is peppered with type mistakes. A bigger problem is that he or she calls M31 M13!

  21. Who gives a **** 😁

  22. Terry L'Hirondelle | March 20, 2021 at 3:01 pm | Reply

    We we be long gone before that. The earth is losing heat rapidly. Earth will resemble mars in the not to distant future.

  23. agree with Robinson G.

  24. First of all it’s 250,000 miles per hour not per second so the Andromeda galaxy is not travelling faster than the speed of light.Second of all it wil happen in 4 billion years and we won’t be on Earth(Stole the idea from someone else)Lastly I am ten years old so I don’t have to worry about the 4 billion years.

  25. There is good news. People do not have to worry. The world is never going to end. One day very soon the person who made all these galaxies, stars, planets, etc is coming to earth ! He will actually make this small planet his home. His true followers he will give new bodies,even if they have passed on. With those new, never dying, never aging,never decaying, bodies will be able to travel the universe at the speed of thought. No spacesuits, ships needed. Just by thinking ,a person can be in the furthest galaxie in an instant. Does anyone know who the creator and ruler of the universe is ? He is well known and actually visited here as a man about 2000 years ago. Many people use his name carelessly. His name is …… Jesus.

    • The Bible can not even agree on Jesus’ date of birth (two different dates), genealogies (two contradictory lineages) or resurrection (four different versions) among many other critical mistakes, with a long list of contradictions, God’s laws endorsing slavery and misogynism, war, genocide, famine, countless human rights violations or just plainly bizarre and extremely antiquated stuff. However, that will never stop Christians trolls from having an arrogant attitude and opinions when it comes to science, particularly evolutionary biology, astronomy and cosmology.

      Jesus is supposed to comeback on a flying horse throwing swords from his mouth according to the book of Revelation. If that does not sound like mythology to you it is because it is the home team religion in the west and the most popular myth on this planet at the moment. It is a combination of Sumerian, Egyptian, Jewish, Persian and Greco-Roman ancient cults and religions with countless manipulations and mistranslations of the “sacred” scriptures over the centuries for political purposes. Please take it back to where it belongs, your temples of ignorance or as our western society magical thinkers call them, churches. Have a good day.

  26. Samuel Newell | March 20, 2021 at 6:39 pm | Reply

    To Sami you question nothing is travel faster than the speed of light and you are right. Light travels 186282 miles per second. The Galaxy a drama is traveling 250,000 miles per hour. I hope it’s clear things up for you

    • Starry eyed Mike | March 20, 2021 at 7:25 pm | Reply

      Just to add a tiny point to what you correctly stated. Andromeda is traveling 250,000 mile per hour TOWARDS us relative to us! In galactic terms almost standing still relative to us. That’s why it will take 4B years to get to us! Then when we actually “collide” there will be so much space between the stars and nebulae that very few stars will physically collide but more like gravitationally morph into a much larger spiral disk of unimaginable beauty! Then our black holes will gobble us up! Yikes!

  27. Starry eyed Mike | March 20, 2021 at 7:13 pm | Reply

    We want to hope we and the earth and all the things that are familiar to us will last forever but the reality is nothing can! If we ever learn anything it’s that all “things” evolve into other things. Case in point, the Mikey Way and Andromeda will collide and in that change! Our little speck of dust is home to us for a short time, 70 years +\-. Our little speck of dust will change and changes slowly everyday. Asteroids add to us out gassing detracts from us. One day science states we will be assumed by our sun when it changes into a red giant! Change is the only constant in our sphere of existence!

  28. AT:
    Smartmantoo | March 20, 2021 at 6:25 pm | Reply
    There is good news. People do not have to worry. The world is never going to end. One day very soon the person who made all these galaxies, stars, planets, etc is coming to earth ! He will actually make this small planet his home. His true followers he will give new bodies,even if they have passed on. With those new, never dying, never aging,never decaying, bodies will be able to travel the universe at the speed of thought. No spacesuits, ships needed. Just by thinking ,a person can be in the furthest galaxie in an instant. Does anyone know who the creator and ruler of the universe is ? He is well known and actually visited here as a man about 2000 years ago. Many people use his name carelessly. His name is …… Jesus.

    The Bible can not even agree on Jesus’ date of birth (two different dates), genealogies (two contradictory lineages) or resurrection (four different versions) among many other critical mistakes, with a long list of contradictions, God’s laws endorsing slavery and misogynism, war, genocide, famine, countless human rights violations or just plainly bizarre and extremely antiquated stuff. However, that will never stop Christians trolls from having an arrogant attitude and opinions when it comes to science, particularly evolutionary biology, astronomy and cosmology.

    Jesus is supposed to comeback on a flying horse throwing swords from his mouth according to the book of Revelation. If that does not sound like mythology to you it is because it is the home team religion in the west and the most popular myth on this planet at the moment. It is a combination of Sumerian, Egyptian, Jewish, Persian and Greco-Roman ancient cults and religions with countless manipulations and mistranslations of the “sacred” scriptures over the centuries for political purposes. Please take it back to where it belongs, your temples of ignorance or as our western society magical thinkers call them, churches. Have a good day.

  29. Not that it matters to anyone, but couldn’t it just be coming towards us in that area of the opposite galaxy? Either because it’s spinning and one side will look as it’s coming at ours and the other away from? And or because the universe and everything is expanding and possibly different parts in different directions opposite to the centers and cores of massive gravity centers, stars black holes etc…..You would need an outside point away from both to be able to see for sure even for just one galaxies course. Could also be only one of ours headed towards the other, it we seem like we are or it is because of how we are moving in our own galaxy.
    Here’s an nutty question if we are expanding could that mean that the dark matter is being vacuumed to a larger center (big big/ or similar) of the universe??? Huh? Huh?

  30. Who cares if the galaxies collide if we’re facing a problem that is going to destroy Earth much sooner than the collision: global warming, peoples!

  31. For everyone pulling out the religious card saying Jesus is gonna come back as himself and save all believers, just know this. The Bible is a great book and can be a wonderful guide for people, if you dont get overly obsessive with it and take it literally word for word. The Roman Catholics raped up the bible, tore things out of it that they didnt like, killed many people who had a different interpretation of it than theirs, and forced it down the throats of the population for 1 reason…Power and Control over the masses. Forcibly taking away the greatest gift that was given to all souls, the gift of free will and free choice. Sure, people had a choice not to follow, but then you’re a heretic and were murdered. Very few made that choice because fear had been intensely driven into them. Why die when you want to live? And eventually Jesus himself was labeled, slandered, and murdered because he was a threat to the elites power and control. Because he showed the masses how it is possible for ANY human being to open themselves and their minds for spiritual enlightenment, expanding their conciousness to touch upon a very spiritually developed and enlightened state of being that, in essence, is “Godly”. And he also made clear that any human on earth has the ability to do what he did with proper discipline, OPEN MINDS, and a desire to do good for the people of the human race as a whole. To be an equal, productive driving force towards enlightenment as a whole, together, the human race united as an all equal positive, loving force. Power hungry, greedy simpleton rulers were threatened by him, and weaker minded souls, looking to be taken care of instead of seeking or striving to learn by his message and follow his example to become enlightened like him, worshipped him but missed the whole point of his life. They instead made him a God, and his message to the people that was meant to inspire them to pursue his level of enlightenment for themselves, was misunderstood as “He is all powerful, we need to follow him and be cared for by him.” Misunderstood just as his promise to “return”. Yes the return will happen, but will return as a conciousness of enlightenment as people wake up, start to realize that the return of Jesus is inside of us, and we unite as a whole. Not a single, 1 powerful entity coming back to take care of all of us. The return of Christ will be when the Christ Conciousness starts to show up in many positive seeking humans across the Earth and we start to awaken ourselves and eachother to take down the greedy, power hungry, selfish, controlling ideals forced upon us by organized religions (organized religion is the absolute epitome of hypocrisy & segregation), rich elites, and governments/rulers or whatever the f*ck you want to call them. Every soul is a part of “GOD”, we are all a little piece of “GOD”, we have the ability to become one and advance towards enlightenment as a whole. When the human race lovingly, positively united as one moves forward together as one, We essentially are God. Classed societies, rich/poor, powerful elite, negativity, closed minds, denial, selfishness, etc….that is your Antichrist. So dont wait around for a Man on a horse to roll through our skies so you can get a f*ckin picture or selfie with him. Thats not going to happen, not like that. Become him, be him, create him in ourselves. The Law of One.

    • Starry eyed Mike | March 28, 2021 at 10:59 am | Reply

      I believe what you’ve attempted to make clear, God and Jesus are within! Religion was created and tailored to control and for the enrichment of the few! It’s so sad that “organized religion” so missed the point or ignored the message for wealth and power unto themselves! I tend to think I am ignorant of the paths traveled by other believers and for that reason believe they are on a similar path as me! I believe I have the love of the meaning of God in me! For that reason I am completely tolerant of those that believe in oneness of all and the good of believing! To help an elderly person, or anyone, , to hold an infant, to witness birth and the joy of a mother when she holds her godlike creation, this is my religion, my whole oneness of self and being in the good! That is my expression of love and hope and path to enlightenment!
      I’ve gone to a “church” and prayed with others and an exurb of many of our prays ended with the phrase “Father Mother God”! It always seemed so in tuned to my beliefs. It also reminded me of what someone said to me once. I asked a visiting member of the Soviet Union’s Supreme Soviet(@senator) in communist Russia religion if frowned upon but I asked is there a higher power that you do believe in? His response was remarkable and I think of it everyday! He said broadly smiling “Yes, of course! Mother Nature!” He nodded good by and walked away! Mother Nature in my mind is the highest and broadest expression of the all powerful oneness of life and the universe!

  32. The Earth probably only has around a billion years left anyway even if we treat it correctly and stop being a runaway resource virus as the luminosity of the Sun will be around 10 to 15% higher by that point which will make Earth near uninhabitable. By 2 billion years forget it.

  33. If you have never wanted to believe the bible… at least acknowledge your existence is a miracle. A perfect system to keep you alive shows an intelligent designer.  The life at a cell level and how the immune fights viruses and bacteria etc. Powerful!!

    Now we shift our focus into the heavens!! Spectacular! Although the picture in discussion is an artistic version, Reality inspace out there just points me to the one and only designer!!  I canbut fall on my knees and Worship and Adore!

    Psalm 19 King James Version “19 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard”.

    Not only that. The creator is interested in the human affairs and wants to save those who want, come off from the enemy’s grip.

    Enemy? Yes what enemy?

    Revelation 12:7-17 King James Version… “7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

    8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
    11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

    12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. 13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

    14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent”.

    Revelation is written symbolically but we need not guess the meaning. The book is its own interpretor.

    Dragon – Devil – Revelation 20:2 tells us the dragon is the devil or Satan. Father of lies ” John 8:44 King James Version
    Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it”. (deceives the whole world as he is the boss of this world after he managed to deceive Adam and Eve. (Matthew 4:9 “All this I will give you,” he [Devil] said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

    Its true he works through governments e.g Devil used Roman system to try and to killg baby Jesus (as described above in verse  13) Why? He knows he had lost the battle in heaven and was cast out from heaven after he was given a chance to repent. Now he doest want humanity to be saved from his grip – cruelity.

    Todays battle isnt about anything but the two grest powers at war, GREAT Controversy between Good and Evil. Its your soul being fought for. Both sides want your decision. Unfortunately the war for the Devil is already defeated so he is only trying to take masses away with him.

    1 Peter 5:8-9 “8 Be [a]sober, be [b]vigilant; [c]because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world”.

    ” for he knows his time is short Revelation  12:12″.

    Revelation 14:6-7 New King James Version “6 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— 7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

    True worship … Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 King James Version
    “13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil”.
    Now he goes about spreading lies and confusion in the religious world.  He used Roman system to lie to us about the true character of God. Devil still uses world leaders now to spread his malice and agenda via new world order. The aim is to fight Gods laws and principles. 

    True worship = Revere Gods Ten commands
    False worship= Change in Gods laws and princples.

    Devil and new world order agenda will want to force false worship. But true Christians are said to …. “11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death”.

    I would love the true worship of the one and only creator interested in the human affairs that in John 3:16 King James Version, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

    While science helps us to learn about the created things, It doesn’t offer a way of escape from the collision or end of the world.

    This world must be cleansed by the way. Sin and sinners if they dont choose life through Jesus, then eternal death…. Revelation 21
    King James Version “21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea”.

    I would love a great creator who has the universe in his hands yet small enough to live within my heart. And give me a chance to life – in fact a second chance to life eternal.  Use the GREAT EVACUATION PLAN GIVEN TO HUMANITY THROUGH THE BLOOD ON THE CROSS.

  34. Jonathan Ray Pittman | March 31, 2021 at 3:07 am | Reply

    If we are getting closer then we should be able to visit it in a few 1000 years

  35. In 4 billion years there is a good chance there will be no sun,earth or even solar system around to witness this collision.The night sky would be an awesome sight.

  36. LOL I love the last religious post. That is just impressive by how long you can keep that up in one post. I used to be drunk off the same hope and firm “knowledge” as I and others called it (while at the same time “faith” ironically). However, as I started to finally see the full picture, SO much more has been added, and all these extreme words became clear that they are distorted and toxic, especially when labeling people. I’m not saying there isn’t major plans and intelligences at work here nor that there is no truth in these posts whatsoever. But on that same token, don’t you think anyone who has advanced enough intellectually to be able to even participate in the design of cosmological proportions, much more the beginning of life, love, emotion, and complexity of humanity on this planet would have at least the brains enough not to think like a barbarian (so black and white doomsday, merciless, prejudice, unsoundly certain etc etc.). It just becomes laughable at a point. And I’m not saying I’m superior in any way at all and still have so so so much to learn, but I’ve experienced enough to see what is NOT true or at least distorted within our realm of concern and existence so far. On top of that, ever since I’ve expounded on my once-solely religious/Christian-centered perspective and was finally able to wipe my lenses that were fogged up by the plentiful falsehoods of its truth thanks to gradual cultural/doctrinal/translational/historical decay, distortion, exaggeration, and corruption, and so forth, I became–and still increasingly am–marvelously happier and more intelligent, free, and sound, and I feel deep down that if it works the way many imagine it where someday I see that day where I’m face to face with the creator such as “God,” he will smile at me and I, in turn, will right back because I made a very good and important decision and subsequent path in life. May peace reach us all in time. Farewell.

  37. This is mathematically calculable by using the ancient (but sadly, almost lost) science of Vedic Kaalchakra.

    Milky way collision is in three stages …. The destruction is also of three of the 14 hierarchies of this part of the universe.

    This collision is at the end of a “day time of creator (I.e. Brahma Kalpa which has a time span of 4.32 billion years)” …… And then when the night time of creator (I.e. Brahma Kalpa which has a time span of 4.32 billion years)” comes, then this collision happens …..

    In Sanskrit texts, this collision is called as Naimittika Pralaya and its calculated time span is as follows ….

    1st stage: This leads to destruction of Bhu Loka (Earthly worlds) …. Next time it would be after 2,520,732,652 human solar years

    2nd stage: This leads to destruction of Bhuvar loka (Middle worlds) ….. Next time it would be after 3.680652651 billion human solar years

    3rd stage: This leads to destruction of Svar loka (Worlds where sounds exist) ….. Next time it would be after 4.84057265 billion human solar years.

    And the calculation is done in below mentioned link(s) …

    Galactic collisions … https://www.makersmakings.org/naimittika-pralaya/

    Day time of creator … https://www.makersmakings.org/calculating-brahma-kalpa/

    Tim

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