The Supergalactic Plane we are located in doesn't have many spiral galaxies like the Milky Way. Astronomers think they finally know why galaxies like ours are so rare.
A computer simulation says spiral galaxies on a plane bang into each other and result in more elliptical galaxies. Ours hasn’t banged into anyone else yet, that the computer simulation knows about.
A computer simulation says spiral galaxies on a plane bang into each other and result in more elliptical galaxies. Ours hasn’t banged into anyone else yet, that the computer simulation knows about.
… So that infamous impending collision with Andromeda will take our spirals away?!
(Impending in a cosmological sense, so several million years at least IIRC)
Thousands of millions of years I think, and continuing for at least hundreds of millions before the bouncing stops
https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbzcxZ2VudzQ0djQwZTB4MXdzbzdqdXQ4aDVkdWxkMnJ3amJndmlrbCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/rytLWOErAX1F6/giphy.gif
Actually our galaxy has had at least 1 other collision according to our current understanding.
https://www.wired.com/story/this-galactic-collision-shaped-the-history-of-the-milky-way/
But our spiral likely formed after.