NEARBY GALAXY ON COLLISION COURSE WITH THE MILKY WAY

Music by Bendound - original track - https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/little-planet

Milky Way, our home Galaxy and nearby Galaxy Large Megellanic Clouds will collide in a huge cosmic collision which will end with destruction of Large Magellanic Clouds, 4th largest Galaxy in the local Group of Galaxies.

Two Galaxies will collide, and the collision was inevitable, question was when. Magellanic Clouds which is also one of the largest and nearest galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy lies some 163 000 light years away.

The LMC as it is popular known in Astronomy Science circles, is 4th largest Galaxy in the local group of galaxies, also known as the Local Group, which contains some 50 odd galaxies, from largest Andromeda Galaxy which is some 20% greater than our own Milky Way Galaxy, containing some trillion stars to smallest Galaxies in the group which may contain only few million stars.

LMC on the other hand contains around 20 billion stars, and has mass of nearly 10% of our own Milky Way Galaxy, some 70 billion solar masses, however it is relatively small galaxy when compared to Milky Way, only 14 000 light-years across. Milky Way is estimated to be at least 175 000 light years across, and contains over 500 billion stars.

However, before you start screaming the End of the World is nigh, the said collision won’t happen for another 2.5 billion years. The unfortunate discovery was made after scientists ran computer simulations on the movement of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the many satellite galaxies that orbits the Milky Way. Rather than circling at a safe distance, or breaking free of the Milky Way’s gravitational pull, the researchers found the LMC is destined to clatter into the galaxy we call home.

At the moment, the LMC is estimated to be about 163,000 light years from the Milky Way and speeding away at 400 miles per second. But simulations by astrophysicists at Durham University show that the LMC will eventually slow down and turn back towards us, ultimately smashing into the Milky Way in about 2.5 billion years’ time. While individual stars and planets are unlikely to collide, the arrival of a galaxy weighing as much as 70 billion suns will still wreak havoc.

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