Andromeda On Collision Course With the Milky Way 217
ananyo writes "From the Nature story: '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. Researchers came to that conclusion after using the Hubble Space Telescope between 2002 and 2010 to painstakingly track the motion of Andromeda as it inched along the sky. Andromeda, roughly 770,000 parsecs (2.5 million light years) away, is the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way.'"
770,000 parsecs? (Score:5, Funny)
I thought parsecs was a unit of time though? So 770,000 parsecs is about 4 billion years?
So 12 parsecs is about 20 hours?
oh noews! (Score:4, Funny)
Don't Panic (Score:3, Funny)
Stop Panicking!!! This is no time to panic... Though if you do panic try to hold on to that feeling because it is the proper response to being told that your galaxy is on a collision course with another galaxy.
Re:And this is news how? (Score:5, Funny)
This may not be news to you, but I'm thankful to know so I could cancel my tickets to The Book Of Mormon while they're still refundable.
Re:And this is news how? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, just in time to warn our Great^12 Grandchildren.
Maybe we could embed the message in some giant, black humming monolith, or something...
Oh no! Not the Galaxy! (Score:5, Funny)
That's where I keep all my stuff!
AAAHHHHHH! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:oh noews! (Score:3, Funny)
Eh, the Sun itself only has about 4.5 billion years left in it...So Andromeda slamming into us might be a welcome change by then.
Re:don't panic, it's just the end of the world (Score:3, Funny)
In real-time?
Did the computation really take 4 billion years?
Re:oh noews! (Score:3, Funny)
Nope, this event is clearly unavoidable. There is no way we have enough time to relocate or divert it.
What if we used a crack team of roughnecks?
Re:don't panic, it's just the end of the world (Score:5, Funny)
Yep, it was written in Java.
The first billion went while they were waiting for Eclipse to open.
Re:Imagine (Score:0, Funny)
The closer Andromeda gets, the more diffuse its structure will appear. It will just be a change in the shape of the Milky Way. I hope you will be reincarnated into a form that has no internet access. Soon.
Re:770,000 parsecs? (Score:5, Funny)
The WHOOSH is strong with this one.
Re:770,000 parsecs? (Score:4, Funny)
A bigger question is where will the /. editors find room to store all of these geek cards?