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This shows a (beautiful) theoretical point of view from Earth. I feel dumb asking this but will this event affect our solar system?

achow 7y ago
Last line despite the galactic collision and the dazzling view from Earth, it’s extremely unlikely that any individual stars will collide because of the sheer amount of empty space in galaxies.
- withinrafael 7y ago
  Saw that, but wondered if there would be indirect impact from, say, our Sun getting pushed around during the event.
  - penagwin 7y ago
    As long as the earth and moon stay in the same orbit relative to the sun then nothing will change other then the night sky. I don't think it's likely anything would be close enough to change earth's orbit and not the sun's
lukifer 7y ago
Conventional wisdom is that we will have almost zero collisions between celestial bodies due to the vast distances involved; but it seems plausible that the gravity of a massive celestial body could disrupt orbit, enough to alter seasons or even destabilize orbits altogether? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet I'm sure there are far too many variables to predict with any accuracy, but curious if a better space nerd than I has any guess as to the likelihood of such an event.
- outworlder 7y ago
  I have seen some simulations of the "collision" – lots and lots of stars getting ejected from the combined galaxy.
ChuckMcM 7y ago
Looking at the video, yes. But not in the form of something colliding with the Sun. I would guess the most likely interaction would be perturbations of orbits as the solar system deals with these freight trains going by. That could result in anything from planets changing orbits as they follow the changes in the Sun's orbit around the galactic center, to having the entire solar system ejected on its own path away from the galaxy (that first pass "collision" is going to impart a lot of momentum on different systems. It shows a 'spray' of things going out from the galaxy but those things are stars with their nominally attached planetary bodies!)
- jessriedel 7y ago
  The planetary orbits in the solar system are vastly smaller than the typical distance between stars in the combined Milky-Way-Andromeda system. The only difference will be a slightly higher typical speed for Andromeda stars compared to the relative motion of stars in the Milky Way disk. But that's only by like a factor of 10, and I don't have any reason to think that will cause a perturbation that's noticeable above the normal uncertainty from chaos in planetary orbits.

achow 7y ago

Last line despite the galactic collision and the dazzling view from Earth, it’s extremely unlikely that any individual stars will collide because of the sheer amount of empty space in galaxies.

withinrafael 7y ago
Saw that, but wondered if there would be indirect impact from, say, our Sun getting pushed around during the event.
- penagwin 7y ago
  As long as the earth and moon stay in the same orbit relative to the sun then nothing will change other then the night sky. I don't think it's likely anything would be close enough to change earth's orbit and not the sun's

lukifer 7y ago

Conventional wisdom is that we will have almost zero collisions between celestial bodies due to the vast distances involved; but it seems plausible that the gravity of a massive celestial body could disrupt orbit, enough to alter seasons or even destabilize orbits altogether? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet I'm sure there are far too many variables to predict with any accuracy, but curious if a better space nerd than I has any guess as to the likelihood of such an event.

outworlder 7y ago
I have seen some simulations of the "collision" – lots and lots of stars getting ejected from the combined galaxy.

ChuckMcM 7y ago

Looking at the video, yes. But not in the form of something colliding with the Sun. I would guess the most likely interaction would be perturbations of orbits as the solar system deals with these freight trains going by. That could result in anything from planets changing orbits as they follow the changes in the Sun's orbit around the galactic center, to having the entire solar system ejected on its own path away from the galaxy (that first pass "collision" is going to impart a lot of momentum on different systems. It shows a 'spray' of things going out from the galaxy but those things are stars with their nominally attached planetary bodies!)

jessriedel 7y ago
The planetary orbits in the solar system are vastly smaller than the typical distance between stars in the combined Milky-Way-Andromeda system. The only difference will be a slightly higher typical speed for Andromeda stars compared to the relative motion of stars in the Milky Way disk. But that's only by like a factor of 10, and I don't have any reason to think that will cause a perturbation that's noticeable above the normal uncertainty from chaos in planetary orbits.