The Andromeda Galaxy is located near the Milky Way. Researchers say that it appeared during a colossal crash of two star systems not earlier than 3 billion years ago, when the Earth already existed. When calculating the date of galactic birth, scientists are faced with a serious task, noticing a huge gap in the age of various stars.
In the latest analysis, French and Chinese scientists used the most powerful computers in France to skip roughly a terabyte of information. This allowed to increase the physical mechanisms of formation of Andromeda, removing the mystery from the theme of its origin.
Previous studies have noted a significant difference between the Milky Way and Andromeda double clusters. A neighbor, some stars rotated in accordance with the orbit of our galaxy. Why?
The answer gave the last analysis. The conclusion suggests that 7-10 billion years ago, two galaxies, 4 times larger than today's, collided. The team managed to simulate the trajectories of the galactic predecessors. Calculations show that the Andromeda galaxy should have appeared 1.8-3 billion years ago.
The video shows two reconstructions of the event:
Andromeda Galaxy: disk formation
