Space Daily September 07, 2026 • 03:43

Astronomers long expected the Milky Way and Andromeda to collide in about 4.5 billion years — but a 2025 study in Nature Astronomy, using Hubble and Gaia data, estimated only a roughly 50–50 chance of the galaxies merging within the next 10 billion year - Space Daily

The 2025 estimate depended on uncertain motions and neighbouring galaxies. A 2026 follow-up put the merger probability higher, showing why the forecast remains sensitive to the measurements.

The Milky Way’s expected collision with Andromeda became considerably less certain in June 2025. In a Nature Astronomy paper led by Till Sawala, researchers using Hubble and Gaia observations estimat… [+5329 chars]

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Astronomers long expected the Milky Way and Andromeda to collide in about 4.5 billion years — but a 2025 study in Nature Astronomy, using Hubble and Gaia data, estimated only a roughly 50–50 chance of the galaxies merging within the next 10 billion year - Space Daily

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