Milky Way Heavier Than Thought, and Spinning Faster 285
An anonymous reader writes "The Milky Way is spinning much faster and has 50 per cent more mass than previously believed. This means the Milky Way is equivalent in size to our neighbor Andromeda — instead of being the little sister in the local galaxy group, as had been believed. One implication of this new finding is that we may collide with Andromeda sooner than we had thought, in 2 or 3 billion years instead of 5."
The good news (Score:5, Funny)
At least now we don't have to worry about our sun going nova, we'll all die in an intergalactic traffic accident first.
I'll be counting the days (Score:5, Funny)
..on my Zune
Re:The good news (Score:5, Funny)
But the night sky will look even prettier for the future cockroach decedents, if they have evolved enough to "look up" by then.
Personally, I plan on being dead in a time span that measures in decades, not billions of years.
Reassuring (Score:3, Funny)
For a while there I was worried it had dropped down to 1 billion years.
Declaration of inter-galactic hostilities (Score:5, Funny)
last chance for backup! (Score:5, Funny)
oh well.. still leaves plenty of time to debate which is the most robust backup method after all then?
I for one... (Score:4, Funny)
Thought I was drunk.
Good to know it was the milky way spinning all too fast.
Re:Science (Score:5, Funny)
Still, it is nice to know we're not in the pipsqueak galaxy. Hoorah!?!?
The Miiilky Waaay... Fuck, yeah!
Way Heavier Than Thought, and Spinning Faster (Score:5, Funny)
Ugh. Sounds like scientists just discovered my last blind date.
Here is my results for Milky Way, etc (Score:1, Funny)
I did a study.
1. Three Musketeers is the most voluminous.
2. Snickers is the densest.
3. Milky Way resulted from collision between high energy caramel particles into a Three Musketeers bar. And a new sub layer formed under the chocolate strata. The caramel particles could not penetrate the nougat.
4. Milky Way Dark has the most dark matter.
5. Mars has the biggest nuts.
WhatMeWorry!!
Re:Science (Score:2, Funny)
Still, it is nice to know we're not in the pipsqueak galaxy. Hoorah!?!?
Let's go to the Magellanic Clouds and look for somebody to beat up!
Re:The good news (Score:5, Funny)
I hope we're insured. Imagine if the other guy sues!
Re:Good news everybody! (Score:5, Funny)
Tell that to the fat guy who got shot with a rifle round. He has a 600,000% weight advantage, yet he's still in ICU on a respirator.
Fat man 0, Remington 1.
Re:The good news (Score:2, Funny)
What type of creature are you?
And are you good to eat?
Re:Declaration of inter-galactic hostilities (Score:2, Funny)
Two galaxies, one cup.
...in 2 or 3 billion years ?!? (Score:2, Funny)
Whoa, for a moment I thought you said _million_ years. No need to panic, people.
Re:I'll be counting the days (Score:3, Funny)
Timeline revisions of 2-3 Billion years are now to be expected. A patch will be made available before this becomes an issue in the year 2012000000.
Re:From TFA (Score:4, Funny)
Re:From TFA (Score:1, Funny)
Heard this once.
Astrophysicists: They're often wrong but never in doubt.
Re:Way Heavier Than Thought, and Spinning Faster (Score:2, Funny)
The Milky Way would like to respond by noting that it is not, in fact heavier, it's just that these pants makes its butt look big.
Re:hello... (Score:3, Funny)
That's some heavy thinking. You must have a massive intellect.
Ahah! (Score:5, Funny)
It's only a matter of time before the earth's age is readjusted to 6000 years!
Heavy thoughts??? (Score:3, Funny)
Do you mean there is a problem with gravity in the future?
Re:The good news (Score:5, Funny)
I was hoping to win a Darwin Award in a few billion years for 'collided with another galaxy'
Re:hello... (Score:2, Funny)
Actually I think it was when I was playing catch with my Nephew... I missed the ball and it started orbiting ;)
Re:Declaration of inter-galactic hostilities (Score:4, Funny)
Well, that'll show those Andromedans not to attack "smaller" galaxies. Now who's laughing! We will plunder their mass...
So your saying that in the final climactic battle between forces beyond human comprehension - I'm stuck on the pirate side? Dammit!!
Ninjdromeda's gonna kick our ass...physics be damned!
OH MY GOD (Score:1, Funny)
OH MY GOD, I WAS GOING TO HAVE KIDS, I was gonna have a great life! I may win the lottery next week! How am I going to live knowing that my great*10^7 grandkids may be killed in a tragic intergalactic traffic accident?
Re:The good news (Score:5, Funny)
Given billions of years, either word could work, and neither will be relevant
3Musketeers (Score:1, Funny)
Now I see why they are running all those commercials about 3Musketeers being 45% lighter.
Re:hello... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Showing My Ignorance (Score:3, Funny)
Simple, the girl astronomers don't mind asking neighboring galaxies for directions. (Stubborn guys try to use math and stuff.)
Re:They keep swapping the title (Score:2, Funny)
When the tax collector comes by, we tinker with the books a bit, but then put it back big for advertising reasons.
Re:Good news everybody! (Score:2, Funny)
Tell that to the fat guy who got shot with a rifle round. He has a 600,000% weight advantage, yet he's still in ICU on a respirator.
Did you see the bullet afterward?
we age slower then (Score:3, Funny)
Does that mean that we age slower compared to the people in Andromeda?