Hold onto your telescopes, space fans! New research suggests our Milky Way might dodge a catastrophic collision with the Andromeda galaxy after all – but it’s still a cosmic coin flip. 🌠
Scientists previously predicted a head-on crash in 4.5 billion years, but Nature Astronomy reveals fresh simulations showing just a 50% chance of collision in the next 10 billion years. "It’s basically a coin flip," says lead researcher Till Sawala from the University of Helsinki.
Using data from space telescopes, the team ran 100,000+ simulations. Results show the galaxies might instead perform a celestial tango, passing within 500,000 light-years. Even if they merge, it likely won’t happen for 8 billion years – long after our Sun fries Earth to a crisp in ~1 billion years. 🔥
Why care? While future humans (or aliens?) might face galactic chaos, Sawala jokes: "I’d prefer no collision… even though it’s irrelevant to my great-great-grandkids." The study leaves our galaxy’s fate wide open, with Gaia and Hubble data possibly solving the mystery within a decade.
So relax, Earthlings – this intergalactic soap opera won’t air for eons. 🌍✨
