Thread: Questions About Galactic Collisions.

As I would guess most of you have heard, the Milky Way is do to collide with Andromeda fairly soon, a few billion years which, on a universal scale, is pretty soon. What I am wondering is how will the collision effect our Galaxy? We have two massive objects colliding but the space between the objects within those objects is vast. Is it possible that the Galaxies may merge? Depending on the position of Orion's Arm During the collision and our distance from the core of the Milky Way is it possible our system, if it is still around, will survive?

I understand that simulations of the collisions lead to a merger and the formation of an elliptical galaxy.

All systems will survive (well except for a few perhaps), but some may be ejected from he merged galaxy and wander througn the local group until their stars expire of old age.

So our solar system could become an intergalactic traveler of sorts?

Not likely, but anything is possible. It's more likely that systems near the cores of the two galaxies would be ejected due to the stars being packed closer together and resultant higher gravitational shear.