Get out of the way! Galactic collision will happen sooner than scientists thought
If the return to work, grim weather and global economic downturn were not enough to contend with, astronomers added to the seasonal gloom today by announcing that the Milky Way is set to crash into a nearby galaxy sooner than they thought.According to their most detailed measurements yet, scientists admitted to have grossly underestimated the mass of the Milky Way, and so the gravitational pull it exerts on our cosmic neighbours, including the giant Andromeda galaxy.The oversight means that the two galaxies, which are on a cataclysmic collision course, will slam into one another earlier than scientists had previously predicted.When the two galaxies meet, powerful shockwaves will compress interstellar gas clouds within them, triggering a dazzling flourish of newborn stars, in a last heavenly hurrah before the giant wreckage slowly dims and dies out.Fortunately the galactic disaster still lies unfathomably far into the future.Our solar system is around 28,000...
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