Like Two Big Playgrounds Smashing Together
Imagine you have two huge playgrounds, one is your favorite, the Milky Way, and the other is your friend’s favorite, the Andromeda galaxy. Right now, they're far apart, but they’re slowly moving toward each other, just like two trains on a track coming from opposite directions.
In about 4.5 billion years, that's way longer than you’ll ever live, these two playgrounds will collide, and it'll be like a giant crash party! The stars in both galaxies will swirl around each other, maybe even form new stars and new shapes.
What Does That Mean for Us?
You won’t feel the crash because it happens so slowly. But in the far future, Earth might get bumped a little bit by the movement, kind of like how your toy car gets pushed when another one hits it from behind.
Even though there’s a big crash, everything will still be okay. The Sun and Earth won’t be destroyed, they’ll just be part of a new, bigger galaxy.
Examples
- Like cars crashing into each other, stars might be flung out of their usual paths during the galaxy collision.
- Even though it sounds violent, most stars won’t actually crash into each other during the collision.
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See also
- Did the Milky Way absorb a galaxy known as Loki?
- How Does LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves Work?
- How Does Gravitational Waves | A Cosmic Symphony Work?
- What are gravitational waves? - Amber L. Stuver?
- How to blow up a star?