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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Earth Likely to Relocate in Galactic Collision


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The Andromeda galaxy, seen here, is a large spiral galaxy many astronomers have called a "twin" to our galaxy, the Milky Way.

But in the next five billion years, Andromeda will become more of a Siamese twin, colliding with the Milky Way to form an elliptical galaxy dubbed "Milkomeda" by researchers—and the smash-up is likely to send Earth hurtling to a remote, lonely region of space.

Image courtesy NASA-JPL