How Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies look like when they merge. Take a look

Andromeda galaxy, the nearest one to ours, is approaching Milky Way galaxy. Scientists say that it will begin to merge in Milky Way in a few billion years.

Astronomers and people in general have started to process how the merging of these two galaxies will look like. In an attempt of this, the Gemini South Observatory released an image that gives life to this possibility.

How would two galaxies look when they merge?

The Gemini South Observatory captured the image of NGC 7727, a peculiar galaxy in the constellation Aquarius. It is about 90 million light years away from our galaxy. The image seem like two spiral galaxies are merging into each other. Their gravitational interactions are hurling tidal tails of stars into the cosmos.

Astronomers believe that NGC 7727 was created by a massive collision that happened over a billion years ago. Inside this mess and chaos is a pair of black holes, one from each original galaxy. These two black holes hold two records- for the closest super-massive black hole part to Earth and the closest- together pair ever seen.

What will happen when two galaxies merge or collide?

One of the black holes measures 154 million solar masses and the other 6.3 million solar masses. They are approximately 1,600 light-years apart. Astronomers have estimated that the two black holes will eventually merge into one in about 250 million years. This will form an even more massive black hole, and the collision will emit violent ripples of gravitational waves across spacetime. Hopefully a future version of the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) will be online so future astronomers can witness and record the event.

The merger of the galaxies began long ago. The giant tidal tails are bright with young stars and active stellar nurseries. In fact, about 23 objects found in the system are considered candidates for young globular clusters. Astronomer say these collections of stars often form in areas where star formation is higher than usual and are especially common in interacting galaxies as we see here.

Since the Milky Way and its closest neighbour Andromeda are being pulled together in a gravitational dance, there will likely be similar events in NGC 7727. Some astronomers say it is likely the sun will be flung into a different region of our galaxy, and Earth and the solar system will probably just to go along for the ride and are in no danger of being destroyed.

(With inputs from agencies)

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