When galaxies collide, better write down those plans in pencil

It looks like any important social engagements you may be planning 4 billion years hence may not have to be canceled, but you might well consider a new theme: Galaxy Collision Fiesta, perhaps.

According to recent images picked up by the Hubble space telescope, the quite large Andromeda galaxy is likely going to collide with our Milky Way in 4 billion years. Scientists say the Milky Way has actually collided with small galaxies several times, but never such a large one. Andromeda and the Milky Way are about 2.5 million light years, or 15 quintillion miles away from each other, but they are set to meet.

So what does this mean? It’s a bit hard to say but the best guess of the experts right now is that it won’t mean anything at all. The space between stars is so vast that the likelihood of our sun or planets colliding with any of Andromeda’s heavenly bodies is pretty low. That’s the good news.

The bad news is, if you’re still planning that party, you might want to rethink it. Scientists also say that while we on Earth don’t need to worry about crashing into Andromeda, we do have one other, little issue. By the time this all happens, the sun will have already entered its “red giant” stage of decay, expanding in size until it engulfs the Earth.

So in terms of your social planner, you may want to play it by ear.