The Milky Way is going to collide with its sib galaxy , Andromeda , around 4 billion years in the future . This merger will dramatically deepen both galaxy . But research worker guess that before that happens another uniting will take billet , one with the Large Magellanic Cloud . psychoanalysis of this potential collision is write in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .
The Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC ) is one of the bragging and closest of the dwarf galaxies that hem in the Milky Way . It is settle 163,000 wakeful - years away and entered our neighbourhood 1.5 billion years ago . mass thought for a foresightful time that it would either keep orbiting our Galax urceolata or it might even escape it , as it incite very tight . But late we unwrap that it has a band more moody issue than ask and its lot has shifted dramatically .
It is now expect that in about 2.4 billion twelvemonth the LMC will off the Milky Way . It wo n’t devastate the galaxy completely but it will make real change . The team expects Sagittarius A * , the supermassive pitch-black trap at the center of the Milky Way , to get an inflow of textile . This will increase its mass importantly , by a factor of eight according to the field , and will likely lead to its wakening .
Sagittarius A * is quiescent and not actively feeding , but during a uniting it will start actively bolt up material fall into the core of the Milky Way . An fighting black hole give rise brawny spurt of cloth at temperatures high than the inwardness of the Sun . It also emits a lot of high - push radiation . Such an alive black hollow could direct to the organisation of gigantic spicy current of air of gasolene moving across the galaxy .
The team also expects that the gloriole of the Milky Way – the firmament of very spread out out star surrounding the galaxy – will accrue more member . In fact , mayhap five time as many as there are currently . Mostly they will be star topology from the LMC but even stars from the milklike Way might be thrown out into circumgalactic space .
The obvious question is will this affect the Solar System ?
“ There is a low chance that we might not escape whole from the hit between the two galaxies , which could ping us out of the Milky Way and into space , ” lead author Dr Marius Cautun , from Durham University , said in astatement .
The squad remember that the scenario is unlikely as only a few percent of the stars located where the Sun is are at risk . And at the remainder of the twenty-four hours , we ’ll all be bushed by then so really we should n’t mislay sleep over this .
