What do you know, there’s still some hope left in the world! In a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, researchers found that the way they previously predicted the world to end may not happen after all, according to Daily Mail.
In the past, research has predicted that, sometime in the next five billion years, Earth will collide with the Andromeda Galaxy at 220,000 mph, effectively swallowing Earth in the process.
Now, researchers at Durham University have lowered the likelihood of that scenario to 50/50 after conducting 100,000 simulations.
While having a coin flip’s chance that the world may not end in a horrifying way may not sound like good news, it’s a lower percentage than previously predicted.
“It used to appear [Earth was] destined to merge with Andromeda forming a colossal ‘Milkomeda,’” Professor Alis Deason, who co-authored the study, said, per the outlet. “Now, there is a chance that we could avoid this fate entirely.”
How the World May Avoid Its Previously Assumed Fate
Currently 2.5 million light years from Earth, the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. Though they’re far apart, gravitational attraction to pushing the two mega galaxies closer and closer.
“We see external galaxies often colliding and merging with other galaxies, sometimes producing the equivalent of cosmic fireworks when gas, driven to the centre of the merger remnant, feeds a central black hole emitting an enormous amount of radiation, before irrevocably falling into the hole,” Professor Carlos Frenk, who co-authored the study, said, per the outlet. “Until now we thought this was the fate that awaited our Milky Way galaxy. We now know that there is a very good chance that we may avoid that scary destiny.”
Instead, just two percent of simulations showed the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies colliding in the next five billion years.
Meanwhile, approximately half of the simulations showed the galaxies passing so close to each other that they began to slow down. That would cause the galaxies to spiral into an eventual merger within the next eight to 10 billion years, though it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
“Our results suggest that a collision, even if it happens, might take place after the Earth and the sun no longer exist,” Dr. Till Sawala, the lead author of the study, told the outlet. “Even if it happens before that, it’s very unlikely that something would happen to Earth in this case – even when two galaxies collide, collisions between stars are very unlikely.”
The post Good News: The World May Not End in a Terrifying Way After All appeared first on VICE.
