There is a massive black hole with millions of
times more mass than our sun is plunging towards Earth and will one day
annihilate life as we know it. This particular black hole is coming towards us
at 110 kilometres per second and is at the center of the Great Andromeda Galaxy
– the Milky Way’s closest and much larger neighbor.

At the center of the most known galaxies,
there exist a supermassive black hole which stars spin around and helps keep
everything in formation.

But such is the powerful gravitational pull of
the Milky Way and Andromeda that they are being drawn toward each other and
will one day crash. Fraser Cain, publisher of space website Universe Today,
wrote for Phys.org:
“There’s a black hole at the centre of the
Milky Way. And not just any black hole, it’s a supermassive black hole with
more than 4.1 million times the mass of the Sun. It’s right over there, in the
direction of the Sagittarius constellation. Located just 26,000 light-years
away. And as we speak, it’s in the process of tearing apart entire stars and star
systems, occasionally consuming them, adding to its mass like a voracious
shark.”
Due to the size of Andromeda however, there is
only going to be one winner when it smashes into the Milky Way. But, as
Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away, it will take over four billion years
to reach us, so we are safe for now.
Mr Cain said: “Panic will happen when the
Milky Way collides with Andromeda in about 4 billion years.


“Suddenly, you’ll have two whole clouds of
stars interacting in all kinds of ways, like an unstable blended family.

“Stars that would have been safe will careen
past other stars and be deflected down into the maw of either of the two
supermassive black holes on hand. Andromeda’s black hole could be 100 million
times the mass of the Sun, so it’s a bigger target for stars with a death
wish.”
Well, that is encouraging to know.
ReplyDeleteI'm panicking already. With just 4 billion years to go, the collision will occur in hardly more than the blink of an eye.
ReplyDelete