This illustration shows a stage in the predicted merger between our Milky Way galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, as it will unfold over the next several billion years. In this image, representing Earth’s night sky in 3.75 billion years, Andromeda fills the field of view and begins to distort the Milky Way with tidal pull.
In addition to all that activity, there’s one other hallmark of a merger: starburst knots. They are sites of star formation that occur in the wake of a merger. The activity pushes clouds of gas and dust together, eventually creating scads of hot, young stars. That’ll happen as long as there’s enough material available to the starbirth nurseries.
spacewriter
spacewriter *maybe not*
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