The future of the Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy is an interesting one since the two are projected to collide in five billion years. It is important to note that both galaxies contain a large supermassive black hole at their corresponding centers, which is the reason for the spiral nature of the galactic structure (PBS Space Time, 2018). Each black hole has a mass equivalent to 100 million Suns, which means that the gravitational pull force is substantial to attract both galaxies together. The velocity of Andromeda’s movement toward the Milky Way is around 110 kilometers per second. As time passes, within the span of five billion years, the Andromeda galaxy will become more visible in the night sky, appearing larger in size. The monumental collision will cause a massive disruption in the current structure of the galaxy.
It should be noted that the Andromeda galaxy’s nature and scale were first accurately calculated by focusing on the pulsation rate of the stars. It was done by Edwin Hubble, who determined that Andromeda was its own island of the massive galaxy outside the boundaries of the Milky Way (PBS Space Time, 2018). After around six to seven billion years, both galaxies will merge into a new football-shaped one, with two supermassive black holes falling towards the center. However, there will be no collision between stars of the galaxies since the average distance between such stellar bodies is 100 billion times greater than their size (PBS Space Time, 2018). Therefore, both the Sun, Earth and the entirety of the solar system will most likely be unaffected by the collision of two galaxies. A bigger concern in five billion years is the expansion of the Sun because its death process involves enlargement.
Reference
PBS Space Time. (2018). The Andromeda-Milky Way collision [Video]. YouTube. Web.