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foma_kyniaev t1_iyculu4 wrote

So does the milky way.Isnt that been proven already?

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cupris_anax t1_iyd7u1y wrote

So does every celestial body. That's how gravity works.

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OtakuMage t1_iycwvnt wrote

And the Milky Way is on the menu in about 4 billion years.

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darkgothmog t1_iydautg wrote

And vice versa, from latest estimates they’re about the same size

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OtakuMage t1_iydipbg wrote

Source on that? Last I heard Andromeda is about twice the size.

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darkgothmog t1_iydnhfs wrote

I found out an article there https://www.astronomy.com/news/magazine/2018/02/adromeda-is-the-same-size-as-the-milky-way

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OtakuMage t1_iydxpco wrote

Interesting. Less dark matter isn't what I was referring to specifically though. Still seeing it listed as about 200,000 light-years in diameter, which is double the Milky Way.

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MarkHamillsrightnut t1_iyeiekr wrote

I think you're right. According to a quick google search Andromeda has about a trillion stars compared to the estimated 300 billion the Milky Way has.

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SeeTreeMe t1_iyepo2h wrote

It has way more stars but it’s mass could be anywhere from 1.8x ish to actually less than the Milky Way (according to wiki). There’s some pretty big error bars on it.

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NewPlanetarium t1_iye712u wrote

The smoking gun was the discovery of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy in the nineties, showing a direct, ongoing merger event between Sagittarius and the Milky Way. This article is a little sensational, but the paper they are describing just suggests that the authors find evidence for a more recent (few billion years ago) possible large-scale merger event for Andromeda. More evidence will be required to confirm if that interpretation is correct.

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