\n A NASA visualization showing the Milky Way and Andromeda at four billion years from now, if they make an encounter.
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Galaxy illustrations courtesy of NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI) T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger. Visualization courtesy of NASA, ESA, and F. Summers (STScI)<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Galaxy illustrations courtesy of NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI) T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger. Visualization courtesy of NASA, ESA, and F. Summers (STScI)<\/p>\n <\/span>\n<\/div>\n A NASA visualization showing the Milky Way and Andromeda at four billion years from now, if they make an encounter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Galaxy illustrations courtesy of NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI) T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger. Visualization courtesy of NASA, ESA, and F. Summers (STScI)<\/p>\n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n The Andromeda galaxy lies just beyond (…OK, about 2.5 million light-years beyond) our galaxy, the Milky Way. <\/p>\n These galaxies are more than just neighbors: They’re gravitationally bound. And for the past hundred years or so, scientists thought these galaxies existed in a long-term dance of doom \u2014 destined to crash into one another and combine into one big galactic soup. <\/p>\n But a recent paper out in the journal Nature Astronomy<\/em> <\/em>suggests this cosmic game of bumper cars may never come to a head at all. NPR Short Wave<\/em> host Regina G. Barber chats with computational astrophysicist Arpit Arora to learn more about the odds. <\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2025\/07\/01\/7.2.25-ep-5d91f31ce9381b756ef4ad5ba454643f9285e9ed.jpg?s=2600&c=100&f=jpeg\")
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