Our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, is set to change dramatically if new findings about the Andromeda galaxy’s direction and path are correct. My latest Nature article, excerpted below, reports the new findings and what they mean.

Andromeda on collision course with the Milky Way

It’s a definite hit. The Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way about 4 billion years from now, astronomers announced today. Although the Sun and other stars will remain intact, the titanic tumult is likely to shove the Solar System to the outskirts of the merged galaxies.

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For decades, scientists have known that Andromeda is falling towards our home Galaxy at a rate of 110 kilometres per second and that the two might eventually collide as a result of their mutual gravity. But because astronomers could easily measure Andromeda’s velocity only along the line of sight to Earth, no one could be sure whether the future encounter would constitute a major merger, a near-miss or a glancing blow.

The image below is how the Milky Way may look after the Andromeda galaxy hurtles through.