Astronomers long expected the Milky Way and Andromeda to collide in about 4.5 billion years — but a 2025 study in Nature Astronomy, using Hubble and Gaia data, estimated only a roughly 50–50 chance of the galaxies merging within the next 10 billion year - Space Daily
science 2026/09/07 03:43:43

Astronomers long expected the Milky Way and Andromeda to collide in about 4.5 billion years — but a 2025 study in Nature Astronomy, using Hubble and Gaia data, estimated only a roughly 50–50 chance of the galaxies merging within the next 10 billion year - Space Daily

Source:Space Daily
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The 2025 estimate depended on uncertain motions and neighbouring galaxies. A 2026 follow-up put the merger probability higher, showing why the forecast remains sensitive to the measurements.