New observations of a pair of colliding spiral galaxies hint at what might be in store for the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy if and when they collide. The findings, described in July in the ...

It turns out that looming collision between our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies might not happen after all. Astronomers reported Monday that the probability of the two spiral galaxies colliding is ...

Understanding how galaxies grow has long stood as one of astronomy’s core challenges. Over time, scientists have gathered evidence that galaxy mergers matter. When two galaxies move close, gravity can ...

We learned that the stellar collision it came from was likely caused by an even more catastrophic encounter—a merger between two galaxies. This is the first time astronomers associated this type of ...

The magnetic fields of the galactic disk and dusty and molecular outflow of the merging galaxy Arp220 observed by ALMA. | Credit: Lopez-Rodriguez, E. (USC; polarization data), Girart, J.M. (ICE-CSIC ...

In this combination of images from NASA/ESA shows three future scenarios for Milky Way & Andromeda encounter. Top left: Galaxies bypass at 1 million light-year separation. Top right: At 500,000 ...

What happens when two rare ring galaxies collide? They form an infinity symbol—or the face of a cosmic owl, depending on how you look at it. The James Webb Space Telescope has helped two international ...

At a distance of 2.5 million light years from the Milky Way, it’s hard to believe that Andromeda is our closest neighbouring galaxy. But despite the huge distance between these two elliptical entities ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Last month when scientists announced new ...