Louis J Sheehan 80171

Future astronomers will become intimately acquainted with Andromeda as it screams toward us on a collision course with the Milky Way. A new simulation indicates that the first pass of galactic jousting will occur in 2 billion years, and the galaxies will fuse within 5 billion years. As the universe expands, all other galaxies will fade from sight. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who developed the simulation, says astronomers should appreciate that we live at a special time in cosmic history: “Now when we look up, we see many galaxies. In the distant future, this will become a lonely place, with nothing to look at. If we want to learn about the universe at large, we’d better do it while we still can.” Louis J Sheehan