Milky Way & Andromeda Merger

" writes:

Closing, and destined to merge in about 4.5 billion years, is often
touted as a collision, but this is very misleading. There will be
essentially no resulting star collisions, although lots of
gravitational interactions, and the formation of one super
galaxy. Pity that no human is likely to witness anything, for a number
of good reasons.

I surmise the only individuals out in internet-land fearing that
galactic mergers lead to billions of stellar collissions are those who
never, at the least, possessed a passing interest in the subject of
astronomy. Imagining the scale of a simple lightyear is beyond most
people's imagination (including myself).

I have a feeling we will be around but as something evolved into
something else. We'll need to leave earth within 50,000 years, and
likely well before this. We have that amount of time to discover the
means of high density energy storage to conduct multi-dimensional
travel. We'll also need to catalog every young main sequence star in the
galaxy or beyond that is going through a quiet period in magnetic
activity and also possess rocky planets residing in the goldilocks
zone.

Assuming we manage to leave here and find a suitable planet around
another star, we'll be spread along many planets suitable for us. Our
original planet will be a distant memory as our sun grows into a red
giant and destroys most of the moons and planets in orbit.

In 4.5 billion years, I'm sure we'll still be bipedal but I'd bet a five
dollar footlong that we'll no longer possess hair and our average heigth
will vary from epoch to epoch. Our average lifespans will exceed
two-hundred years.

If we're smart, we'll identify a planet in a relatively isolated galaxy
with tons of habitable planets and galactic stability. I wouldn't want
to reside in the galaxy during a merger. Sure, we're not worrying about
stellar collissions, but we would have to worry about nearby stars or
black holes passing close by and interrupting the delicate gravitational
balance of our planets and alter the orbits and perhaps eject others. Of
course, our solar system will either comprise of a red giant with
scorched outer planet cores or a white dwarf with a smattering of
asteroid belt remnants.

--
Daniel
Visit me at: gopher://gcpp.world