The video below demonstrates
what NASA scientists proclaimed in 2012 and what the Cosmos TV series presented
in 2014 that the neighboring Andromeda galaxy will hit and join with our Milky
Way galaxy 4 billion years from now. The video below (from the Hubble Space
Telescope news center) is from a sequence of photo illustrations, presenting
the expected union between our two giant spiral galaxies, as seen in Earth’s
sky. Will Earth as a planet live long enough to see this remarkable phenomenon?
(READ THE ANSWER AT END OF ARTICLE)
The collision and merger between our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby Andromeda galaxy 4 billion years from now
Image Via NASA
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Here is the explanation of
what’s happening in the pictures above:-
First Row, Left: Current day.
First Row, Right: In 2 billion
years the disk of the approaching Andromeda galaxy is prominently larger.
Second Row, Left: In 3.75
billion years Andromeda blocks the field of vision.
Second Row, Right: In 3.85
billion years the sky is burning with new star construction.
Third Row, Left: In 3.9
billion years, star creation continues.
Third Row, Right: In 4 billion
years Andromeda is tidally strained and the Milky Way becomes distorted.
Fourth Row, Left: In 5.1
billion years the centers of the Milky Way and Andromeda act as a pair of
bright portions.
Fourth Row, Right: In 7
billion years the fused galaxies form a giant elliptical galaxy, its bright
core ruling the night sky.
Will Earth as a planet live long enough to see
this remarkable phenomenon, as showed in the video above?
Earth as a planet might, but natural life on Earth, undoubtedly not. Astrophysicists
say that the brightness, or central brightness, of our sun will gradually
increase over the next 4 billion years. As the sun’s brightness rises, the quantity
of solar radiation getting to the Earth will also rise. It’s imaginable that, about
4 billion years from now, the rise in the Earth’s surface temperature will
cause a runaway greenhouse effect, possibly similar to that going on now on the
planet next door, Venus, whose surface is hot enough to liquefy lead. No one imagines
to discover life on Venus. Similarly, life on Earth will possibly not exist 4
billion years from now. What’s more, our sun is estimated to become a red giant
star ultimately. A possible fate of the Earth is absorption by the sun in about
7.5 billion years, after our sun has entered the red giant stage and extended
to cross Earth’s present orbit.
(If you find any error or
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