4 ms·

Awesome. I was lucky enough to see Andromeda with the naked eye while doing a transatlantic yacht race. Believe it or not it took me a couple of days to find P

by aidos 12y ago

Awesome. I was lucky enough to see Andromeda with the naked eye while doing a transatlantic yacht race. Believe it or not it took me a couple of days to find Pegasus but then it was obvious each night as I gazed up at the sky. We're on a collision course with Andromeda, right? Those trillion stars crashing in are going to make for a wonderful fireworks display :)

deadfall 12y ago
You are right about the collision course. The two will slowly merge into a bigger galaxy like in this picture: http://cas.sdss.org/dr6/en/proj/basic/galaxies/images/752-6-410.jpg http://cas.sdss.org/dr6/en/proj/basic/galaxies/images/752-6-...
- nacs 12y ago
  Wikipedia also has a video but this picture also illustrates it well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision#mediaviewer/File:Andromeda_Collides_Milky_Way.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_co...
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
sanoli 12y ago
The thing is, stars are so far apart from each other that there won't be any collisions. From wikipedia: "While the Andromeda Galaxy contains about 1 trillion (1012) stars and the Milky Way contains about 300 billion (3×1011), the chance of even two stars colliding is negligible because of the huge distances between the stars." link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision
- astrobiased 12y ago
  You're correct, the likelihood of stars colliding is near zero, but the gas that forms stars in both galaxies will collide and that will create quite a spectacular view. It will likely resemble something like this: http://hugepic.io/bfc195a2b/4.00/2.02/-77.61 http://hugepic.io/bfc195a2b/4.00/2.02/-77.61
  - BIair 12y ago
    Space is full of a LOT of empty space. Maybe even more amazing to myself, is the scale works almost the same in inverse. There's also a lot of space at the tiniest scales. Scale of our solar system: http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.h...
mw67 12y ago
We represented both galaxies in 3D crystal cubes in case that's of interest: http://cosmic3d.com/ http://cosmic3d.com/
- BrandonMarc 12y ago
  Nice. I've been looking for that; only found some Japanese outfit that made one years ago, for (the yen equivelent of) $100 ... out of my price range. Glad to see yours is much more reasonable. Curious about accuracy ... how many bubbles (stars) are etched?

by aidos 12y ago

deadfall 12y ago

You are right about the collision course. The two will slowly merge into a bigger galaxy like in this picture: http://cas.sdss.org/dr6/en/proj/basic/galaxies/images/752-6-410.jpg http://cas.sdss.org/dr6/en/proj/basic/galaxies/images/752-6-...

nacs 12y ago
Wikipedia also has a video but this picture also illustrates it well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision#mediaviewer/File:Andromeda_Collides_Milky_Way.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_co...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

sanoli 12y ago

The thing is, stars are so far apart from each other that there won't be any collisions. From wikipedia: "While the Andromeda Galaxy contains about 1 trillion (1012) stars and the Milky Way contains about 300 billion (3×1011), the chance of even two stars colliding is negligible because of the huge distances between the stars." link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda–Milky_Way_collision

astrobiased 12y ago
You're correct, the likelihood of stars colliding is near zero, but the gas that forms stars in both galaxies will collide and that will create quite a spectacular view. It will likely resemble something like this: http://hugepic.io/bfc195a2b/4.00/2.02/-77.61 http://hugepic.io/bfc195a2b/4.00/2.02/-77.61
- BIair 12y ago
  Space is full of a LOT of empty space. Maybe even more amazing to myself, is the scale works almost the same in inverse. There's also a lot of space at the tiniest scales. Scale of our solar system: http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.h...

mw67 12y ago

We represented both galaxies in 3D crystal cubes in case that's of interest: http://cosmic3d.com/ http://cosmic3d.com/

BrandonMarc 12y ago
Nice. I've been looking for that; only found some Japanese outfit that made one years ago, for (the yen equivelent of) $100 ... out of my price range. Glad to see yours is much more reasonable. Curious about accuracy ... how many bubbles (stars) are etched?