Discovery predicts the future: Earth... falls to another galaxy?

What happens when some galaxies are predicted to collide with the galaxy containing the approaching Earth? The Hubble telescope has captured a predictive image 320 million light-years away.

According to Science Alert, the pair of galaxies is collectively known as Arp 282, belonging to the Halton Arp Map of Anomalous Galaxies. Arp 282 actually consists of a large spiral galaxy called NGC 169, up to 140,000 light-years across, and a small galaxy IC 1559 40,000 light-years across.

The moment 2 galaxies 320 million light years away from us exchange matter

These two galaxies are approaching each other at an extremely close distance, and an unusual phenomenon occurs: the exchange of matter back and forth.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the interactions between galaxies contribute significantly to their evolution. It is unknown in the future if they will drift apart again or be completely merged in the way large galaxies swallow small galaxies, but this near-unmerged approach is causing many objects to shift from side to side, simultaneously. triggering intense star formation in one of the two galaxies.

The Hubble image clearly shows plumes of dust and luminous matter moving back and forth between the two galaxies, but it appears to be mainly moving from a bright small galaxy to a large galaxy.

This interaction will cause countless gas, dust, and even many other "Solar Systems" to be sucked out of this galaxy and moved to settle in the new galaxy.

Currently, the central black hole of the two galaxies is still independent and is still "living" strongly. If the two galaxies come close enough, it is possible that the two black holes will merge and create a jolt event, causing gravitational waves to propagate throughout the universe.

The galaxy containing the Earth's Milky Way (the Milky Way) - a galaxy that can be as large as or larger than NGC 169 - has also been shown to have swallowed at least 16 other small galaxies. But within the next 2 billion years it will meet a formidable opponent, the Andromeda galaxy, possibly even larger.

The event is predicted to at least push the Earth out of the "habitable zone". Or maybe our fate will be like what Hubble just captured: the whole Solar System is "relocated".