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brooklynite

(94,984 posts) Tue Jan 8, 2019, 05:47 PM Jan 2019

Looming galactic collision will rip open the black hole at the Milky Way's center

NBC News

The end of the Milky Way as we know it may come a few billion years ahead of schedule.

According to a new paper published Jan. 4 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, our home galaxy appears to be on a crash course with one of its nearest satellites, the spiral of stars known as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

This cosmic crash, modeled in lovely and terrifying detail by a team of astrophysicists at Durham University in the U.K., could begin as soon as 2 billion years from now — roughly 2 billion to 3 billion years sooner than the long-anticipated collision between the Milky Way and its nearest cosmic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. (Adjust your doomsday clocks accordingly.)

While the LMC boasts only about one-twentieth the solar mass of the Milky Way, the collision would nevertheless leave permanent scars on both galaxies, igniting once-dormant black holes, flinging stars quadrillions of miles out of orbit and staining the sky with crackling cosmic radiation.

14 replies

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Highlight:

Looming galactic collision will rip open the black hole at the Milky Way's center (Original Post) brooklynite Jan 2019 OP

That's gonna put a crimp in Trump's Presidency PCIntern Jan 2019 #1

Quick, put this on Fox so 26% of voters fear that more than immigrants ffr Jan 2019 #2

Marking my calendar now Sherman A1 Jan 2019 #3

we'll all be dead...nt 2naSalit Jan 2019 #4

Astrophysicists would note that galaxies colliding does not mean that all of the.. aidbo Jan 2019 #5

"they are still mostly empty space" BumRushDaShow Jan 2019 #8

A wall will stop it. Liberalhammer Jan 2019 #6

The Space Force is being setup just for this! BumRushDaShow Jan 2019 #9

I can keep eating cheese burgers and fries! No point in losing weight. Kaleva Jan 2019 #7

If you gain enough weight you can beat the black hole to the punch. /nt localroger Jan 2019 #10

Come one, come all! lunatica Jan 2019 #11

Well at least I don't need to buy anymore vitamins. oasis Jan 2019 #12

Holy inaccurate headlines Batman! qazplm135 Jan 2019 #13

I hear ya Leith Jan 2019 #14

PCIntern

(25,649 posts)

1. That's gonna put a crimp in Trump's Presidency

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 05:49 PM

Jan 2019

He will only have served two billion years of a ten billion year term

ffr

(22,681 posts)

2. Quick, put this on Fox so 26% of voters fear that more than immigrants

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 05:54 PM

Jan 2019

and we can begin a wall to keep the LCM away.

Sherman A1

(38,958 posts)

3. Marking my calendar now

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 05:56 PM

Jan 2019

I don't want to miss it.

2naSalit

(86,951 posts)

4. we'll all be dead...nt

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:00 PM

Jan 2019

aidbo

(2,328 posts)

5. Astrophysicists would note that galaxies colliding does not mean that all of the..

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:11 PM

Jan 2019

..stars and planets would collide with each other.

Though galaxies have huge numbers of stars and other stellar bodies in them, they are still mostly empty space. The collision will be more of a coalescence of two galaxies to form a single new one.

It could feed matter into the super massive black hole at the center of our Milky Way (Sagittarius A*, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*) which could result in massive gamma ray bursts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst) that could fry planets.

But we'll all be dead before then.

BumRushDaShow

(130,011 posts)

8. "they are still mostly empty space"

Reply to aidbo (Reply #5)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:29 PM

Jan 2019

Exactly! A "collision" between objects would probably be relatively (at least on this grand a scale) rare. You would basically have parts of 2 nebulous entities sortof blending together.

Liberalhammer

(576 posts)

6. A wall will stop it.

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:14 PM

Jan 2019

Yup. The only way.

Trump Wil declare a galactic emergency.

BumRushDaShow

(130,011 posts)

9. The Space Force is being setup just for this!

Reply to Liberalhammer (Reply #6)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:29 PM

Jan 2019

Kaleva

(36,403 posts)

7. I can keep eating cheese burgers and fries! No point in losing weight.

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:22 PM

Jan 2019

localroger

(3,636 posts)

10. If you gain enough weight you can beat the black hole to the punch. /nt

Reply to Kaleva (Reply #7)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:43 PM

Jan 2019

lunatica

(53,410 posts)

11. Come one, come all!

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:46 PM

Jan 2019

Limited tickets! Don’t miss out! Step right up folks!

oasis

(49,484 posts)

12. Well at least I don't need to buy anymore vitamins.

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:48 PM

Jan 2019

qazplm135

(7,447 posts)

13. Holy inaccurate headlines Batman!

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 06:53 PM

Jan 2019

No, the black hole will in fact not be ripped open nor will it be the end of the Milky Way.

Leith

(7,814 posts)

14. I hear ya

Reply to qazplm135 (Reply #13)

Tue Jan 8, 2019, 07:19 PM

Jan 2019

I was constructing a reply, changing the wording, trying not to be rude or condescending, until I finally gave up. NBC posted the worst science article since Ken Hamm's most recent one. If the writer doesn't know what solar mass is or that there is no such thing as a "dormant" black hole, he's in the wrong job.

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