Our Galaxy Has 4 Billion Years to Live — But Our Sun Will Survive
FOUR BILLION YEARS from now, our galaxy, the Milky Way, will collide with our large spiraled neighbor, Andromeda.
從現在起四十億年，我們的銀河系將與我們的大型螺旋狀鄰居仙女座相撞。
The galaxies as we know them will not survive.
銀河系將無法存活下來。
In fact, our solar system is going to outlive our galaxy. At that point, the sun will not yet be a red giant star – but it will have grown bright enough to roast Earth’s surface. Any life forms still there, though, will be treated to some pretty spectacular cosmic choreography.
事實上，我們的太陽系將比我們所在的銀河系存在地更長久。在那時，太陽將不再是一顆紅巨星 - 但它會變得足夠明亮，炙烤著到地球表面。儘管如此，任何生命形式都會受到這一非常壯觀的宇宙變化的影響。
Currently, Andromeda and the Milky Way are about 2.5 million light-years apart. Fueled by gravity, the two galaxies are hurtling toward one another at 402,000 kilometers per hour. But even at that speed, they won’t meet for another four billion years. Then, the two galaxies will collide head-on and fly through one another, leaving gassy, starry tendrils in their wakes. For eons, the pair will continue to come together and fly apart, scrambling stars and redrawing constellations until eventually, after a billion or so years have passed, the two galaxies merge.
目前，仙女座星系和銀河系相距約250萬光年。在重力的推動下，兩個星系以每小時402,000公裡的速度相互對衝。但即使以這樣的速度，他們也需要40億年才能相遇。然後，兩個星系將正面碰撞，星屑四濺。之後的億萬年裡，這兩個星系將繼續聚集在一起又分開，星系裡的恆星分分合合，直到最終，又過了十億年後，兩個星系合併在了一起。
Then, the solar system will have a new cosmic address: A giant elliptical galaxy, formed by the collision and merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda.
然後，太陽系將有一個新的宇宙地址：一個巨大的橢圓星系，由銀河系和仙女座星系的碰撞合併形成。
The good news is that stars are so far apart that even though galaxies are colliding, the probabilities of stellar collisions are small. So the sun and its planets will likely survive the birth of Milkdromeda, though Earth will no longer be able to call the Milky Way home. And we』ll no longer live in a spiral galaxy: Milkdromeda will be elliptical in shape.
好消息是恆星相距甚遠，即使星系碰撞，恆星碰撞的概率也很小。所以太陽及其行星可能會在Milkdromeda的誕生中倖存下來，儘管那時銀河將不再是地球的家園。而且我們將不再生活在螺旋星系中：Milkdromeda將是一個橢圓形的星系。
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