Danger, Galaxies Colliding

~ Cheryl

Especially for Kendall, here is the first “we are all going to die!” post of 2009.

According to astronomers, the anticipated collision between the Andromeda galaxy and ours will occur much sooner than previously estimated. We now have only 7 billion years to do something about it.

Of course past experience suggests it will be 7 billion years before we manage to do anything about climate change…

Update: Now we have only 4 billion years. Urk…

4 thoughts on “Danger, Galaxies Colliding”

  1. If the estimate keeps coming down at the same rate it will be next week..
    …by next week!

  2. Pingback: Cheryl’s Mewsings » Blog Archive » We Are Food

  3. I go out of town for most of two weeks and take days to catch up on your blog, and what happens? More death knells! Though I am confused by the bit I’ve highlighted below:

    They are hurtling towards each other at a million miles an hour and could meet within fewer than 4 billion years – but it is highly unlikely that planets or stars from Andromeda will hit those in the Milky Way. The space between them is equivalent to a football field between grains of sand.

    While the stars and planets will pass each other, clouds of dust and gas will smash into one another, creating enormous shockwaves that force particles together so violently they form new stars. The collision will create a new galaxy, which some astronomers have nicknamed Milkomeda.

    Hurtling towards each other…highlight unlikely to hit…shockwaves…forming new stars….

    Kendall’s head explodes, saving him from this billions-of-years’-distant event. 😉

  4. Glad to have you back, Kendall. In order to save your head from further punishment I won’t say anything about the rash of tremors around the Yellowstone super volcano.

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