The milky Way is in danger! A new study of astrophysicists from Durham University (UK) indicate that the galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) will collide with our milky Way galaxy in approximately two billion years and the consequences of a collision can be much sadder than previously thought. The article describing this research was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
A few years ago, another international team of astrophysicists has published a probable forecast for our galaxy. It said that after 4 billion years the milky Way will absorb the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, in about 5 billion years he will be absorbed by the Andromeda galaxy, which will lead to the formation of giant elliptical galaxies, which researchers conventionally called Mlekodaj. Conclusions the last part in General, according to most scientists. However, in the new study, astrophysicists from Durham University says that the collision of the milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud, located now at approximately 163 000 light-years from us, will happen much earlier than expected.
Such findings build on observations of the distribution of dark matter at BMO. Astrophysicists have found that the Large Magellanic Cloud contains almost two times more dark matter than previously thought, thus it has much more mass than expected. This mass in turn affects how BMO is interacting with its neighbouring galaxies.
Obtained using the space telescope “Hubble” picture of the merger of Whirlpool galaxy (M51a) and its satellite galaxy. Both objects have the same with the Milky Way and LMC mass
The consequences of a collision of the milky Way and LMC would be disastrous, scientists say. The collision of two galaxies can “Wake up” relatively dormant at the moment, a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. As a result, she will start very quickly absorb the surrounding gas, and will increase in size 10 times.
“The destruction of the Large Magellanic Cloud, caused by the absorption of the Milky Way, will seriously damage and our galaxy, awakening located at its center a supermassive black hole and turning it into an active galactic nucleus or a quasar,” says lead study author Marius Cauton.
“As a result of this black hole will begin to exude a very powerful energy jets. Supposedly our Solar system must survive in the process of this collision, however, the possibility exists that the merger of two galaxies, our system will be thrown into intergalactic space,” adds the scientist.
Follow the news about space with the help of our channel in the Telegram.