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Ephemeris: 10/07/2026 – Collision with Andromeda Galaxy is not certain
This is Ephemeris for Friday, October 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 7:08, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:52. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:55 tomorrow morning.
Some astronomers have determined that our Milky Way galaxy has about a 50% chance of colliding with the Great Andromeda galaxy, now two and a half million light years away, within 10 billion years. Earlier estimated gave a more certain and earlier collision date of 4 billion years. A closer look, including the next two most massive galaxies in our Local Group added a greater uncertanty to the collision, or even if it would occur. These two galaxies are the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Triangulum Galaxy, M33. Using the Doppler principle we can measure the approach speed accurately, but have no idea about the lateral velocity. So a hundred simulations were made with varying lateral motions of the four galaxies and their gravitational influences to get the new results.
The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.
Addendum
Reference: 100,000 Computer Simulations Reveal Milky Way’s Fate: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14847
