The 'monster' called the Fairy is about to swallow the galaxy containing the Earth

Our neighbor galaxy is proved to be a monster that swallows fierce galaxies and is preparing to swallow the Milky Way - the galaxy containing the Earth.

Research led by astronomer Dougal Mackey from the Australian National University shows that Andromeda, one of the galaxies closest to us, is showing signs of preparation for future fusion with the Milky Way. our. Before that, it had a violent history of a true "space monster" .

"Andromeda" Andromeda is a true cosmic monster, and we are the next victim - (photo: NASA).

In fact, our Milky Way itself is as "monster" as most other large galaxies in the universe. It has repeatedly devoured smaller galaxies to maintain the beautiful spiral shape.

And Andromeda, which is also a beautiful spiral galaxy, estimates that the diameter could be a little smaller or a bit bigger than the Milky Way (astronomical documents show that the Milky Way could be 100,000-180,000 years in diameter. andromeda; more than 110,000 light-years). It also contains a number of stars that are superior to our galaxy: 1 trillion; while the Milky Way has only about 200-400 billion stars.

Andromeda is named after Andromeda, a princess with a beautiful beauty in Greek mythology. The Vietnamese name for this galaxy is also very poetic: Fairy Nu. However, new research shows that the "Fairy" is a monster even more formidable than the Milky Way.

The scientists used data from five different state-of-the-art telescopes to observe the diffused halos of stars at the edge of Andromeda orbit and discovered at least two clusters of separate orbits and speeds, does not match the rest of the galaxy. They are the remnants of two ancient dwarf galaxies once swallowed. Overall, Andromeda's halo is much more complicated, suggesting it has swallowed more galaxies other than the Milky Way.

In the future, these two huge space monsters will have a fierce battle to merge into a giant galaxy. That could mean change, maybe good, maybe destruction on the countless planetary systems in the Milky Way.

But the good news is that you won't live long enough to worry about Andromeda monsters. Because, for two galaxies to swallow, they will need an extremely long time. Some previous studies calculated that the clash would actually occur only within the next 2 billion years.

The research has just been published in the journal Nature.