Milky Way set to collide sooner than predicted: Study
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 4:01 am under World News Milky Way set to collide sooner than predicted: Study
The Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies are on a collision course and set to crash violently sooner than scientists originally forecast — though still billions of years from now. A group of scientists led by Mark Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in the US, who mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed three-dimensional way, found that it is 15 percent larger in breadth.
According to the researchers, it is also denser, with 50 percent more mass, meaning the collision between the two galaxies will take place earlier than initially thought. Being bigger means the gravity between the Milky Way and Andromeda is stronger. So the long predicted collision between the neighboring galaxies is likely to happen sooner.
The new findings, presented at the American Astronomical Society’s convention in Long Beach, California, argued that the Milky Way is moving at 600,000mph, 100,000mph faster than originally thought. Researchers argue that the collision will happen around the same time our sun is due to burn up the last of its nuclear fuel, within the next seven billion years.
Reid and his colleagues used a large system of 10 radio telescope antennas to measure the brightest newborn stars in the galaxy at different times in Earth’s orbit around the sun, the Daily Telegraph reported. The old number was based on less accurate measurements and this is based on actual observations, Reid said.
According to the report in the British daily, being bigger means the gravity between the Milky Way and Andromeda is stronger. So the long-forecast collision between the neighboring galaxies is likely to happen sooner and less likely to be a glancing blow, Reid said. That is at least 2 to 3 billion years away, he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
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