Think about we might journey to the Andromeda Galaxy and look again at our personal Milky Approach Galaxy.
What would the Andromeda Galaxy appear to be if we might really journey there now, and the way would Earth and our Photo voltaic System seem when seen from that distance?
The difficulty with predicting what the Andromeda Galaxy would love if we might journey there’s that the cosmic restrict of the pace of sunshine means we will solely know what a physique was like on the time the sunshine we see set off from it.
Because of this after we take a look at the evening sky, we’re really wanting again in time.
What does the Andromeda Galaxy appear to be now? We’ll by no means know, as a result of it is 2.5 million lightyears away. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million lightyears away, so it’s unattainable to know what it was like extra just lately than 2.5 million years in the past.Â
Nonetheless, think about that we might see it as it’s proper now.
The distinction of two.5 million years is just about 1/5,000th the life span of Andromeda, and galaxies barely change on such time scales.
For example, the Solar solely travels about 2% of the best way around the Milky Approach on this time.
So Andromeda would look the identical, besides that a couple of hundred thousand stars that we will see in telescopes could have died, whereas the same quantity could have been born.
Our Solar is a few third of the best way
in from the sting of the Milky Approach Galaxy, close to the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula
What would Earth and the Photo voltaic System appear to be?
So we have travelled to the Andromeda Galaxy and pointed our telescopes again at our personal Milky Approach Galaxy. What would the Solar and Earth appear to be?
On the whole, the celebs that make up the constellations seen from Earth (those that seem brightest in our skies) are lower than a thousand lightyears away.
The celebs that make up the sample of a constellation are sometimes very distant from one another, and solely seem shut collectively from Earth’s perspective.Â
The distinctive ‘W’ form of Cassiopeia. Credit score: Michael Breite/Stefan Heutz/Wolfgang Ries/ccdguide.com
Should you might journey to the closest star, Proxima Centauri, the Solar would seem as a vibrant star within the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia.
Nonetheless, in case you begin going a lot additional, the patterns of stars will shift and the constellations develop into distorted after which unrecognizable.
Should you voyaged all the best way to the Andromeda Galaxy and appeared again on the Milky Approach, our personal Galaxy would seem as a small spiral, however the Solar and Earth can be unattainable to identify among the many billions of different stars that make up certainly one of its spiral arms.