Page 1 of 2
Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 1:04 am
by Koshundheit
It is amazing how quickly new discoveries about the cosmos are coming out these days. My thanks to everyone involved in finding such creative ways to explore the universe right from our own little blue planet.
https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/c ... 725096d016
https://www.businessinsider.com/milky-w ... ght-2019-3
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 1:52 am
by Fuzzy Necromancer
I love news like this. It gives me hope.
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 8:24 am
by J!!
Yeah, suck it Andromeda, you puny little shit of a galaxy! We're the biggest, We're the baddest, We're the best galaxy in the entire local group!
MIL-KEY-WAY! MIL-KEY-WAY!
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:53 pm
by ORCACommander
you do know Andromeda is gonna collide with us in the near cosmic future right?
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 5:49 pm
by Yukaphile
And we fuse, locking like lovers to form a whole new galaxy... or like lovers, the intensity kills us both from intergalactic heart failure. You're welcome for that lovely mental image.
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 12:41 am
by Koshundheit
ORCACommander wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:53 pm
you do know Andromeda is gonna collide with us in the near cosmic future right?
Billions of years from now, yes. With that being an estimated 1/3 of the current age of the universe or farther in the future, that's still quite a little while in cosmic terms.
Everything I've read in the past has said that the distances between star systems is so large that despite the galaxies merging, there might not be any collisions between star systems at all. The two super-massive black holes would be expected to merge though, and some star systems would get flung out completely into the intergalactic void, while others would get pulled in toward the larger super-massive black hole. The latter possibility being quite undesirable.
With the new size estimates, scientists will have to do new simulations to try to project how much difference the size change makes in their big picture predictions for a merger.
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 3:27 am
by Robovski
More like the Milky Way will consume Andromeda. And then we see what else we can consume.
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 3:40 am
by Yukaphile
My God, we'll become the flipping Borg! Consuming galaxies until we're like IC 1101!
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:28 am
by BridgeConsoleMasher
I'm really not that surprised by this. I always thought our galaxy is pretty big.
Re: Milky Way galaxy far more massive than previously thought
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:00 am
by Madner Kami
BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:28 am
I'm really not that surprised by this. I always thought our galaxy is pretty big.
On a cosmic scale, we're still on the lower average end.
And this is terrible news. We won't fit into our wedding dress and there's not enough time left to train the extra weight away...