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Hubble and Gaia revisit fate of our galaxy

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Milky Way and Andromeda encounters

Over a decade’s worth of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data was used to re-examine the long-held prediction that the Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 4.5 billion years. The astronomers found that, based on the latest observational data from Hubble and Gaia, there is only a 50-50 chance of the two galaxies colliding within the next 10 billion years.

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      View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
      Media Contacts
      Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
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      Hannah Braun – hbraun@stsci.edu
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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