The researchers found that if the orbits of the Milky Way and Andromeda come close enough for the two galaxies to gravitationally influence each other, then a merger is an eventuality.

While good news for the Milky Way galaxy, the latest forecast may be moot for humanity. "We likely won't live to see the benefit," lead author Till Sawala of the University of Helsinki said in an ...

"Milky Way season," when the galaxy's bright center becomes easier to see from Earth, typically runs from February to October, according to Milky Way photography website Capture the Atlas.

But the only way to get to a new prediction about the eventual fate of the Milky Way will be with even better data.” DOI: Nature Astronomy, 2025. 10.1038/s41550-025-02563-1 (About DOIs).

Astronomers now believe the Milky Way’s “inevitable” collision with a neighboring galaxy is much less likely than originally thought.

Nation & World Oddities Science Milky Way’s chance of colliding with galaxy billions of years from now? New study puts odds at 50-50 June 2, 2025 at 8:02 am Updated June 2, 2025 at 8:45 am By ...

A new European study out Monday throws into question conventional wisdom that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are on a collision course that will take out our galaxy and the solar system with it.

Other galaxies show examples of three future scenarios for the Milky Way and Andromeda: galaxies passing in the night, a close encounter, a full collision and merger.

The researchers found that two other nearby galaxies — the Large Magellanic Cloud and Messier 33 — could have significant influence on whether the Milky Way and Andromeda ultimately collide.

Admire our galaxy’s dramatic galactic core—a sparkly bulge of stars and gas—while summer’s short ‘Milky Way season’ lasts ...

A collision between our Milky Way galaxy and its largest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, predicted to occur in about 4.5 billion years, has been anticipated by astronomers since 1912.

It's a fun fact pulled out at parties by every space nerd on the block — our Milky Way galaxy is going to crash into our nearest neighbour (the Andromeda galaxy) in 5 billion years.