Milky Way - Andromeda Galaxy Collision

A scientific visualization of a computer simulation showing the predicted collision between our Milky Way Galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy.

Credits

• Visualization Credit: Frank Summers (Space Telescope Science Institute)
• Simulation Credit: Gurtina Besla (Columbia Uniersity), Roeland van der Marel (Space Telescope Science Institute)

Cinematic Version

• Includes Milky Way, Andromeda, and Triangulum Galaxes - the three largest galaxies in the Local Group
• Camera starts at Milky Way and pulls back to Local Group, then circles clockwise around collision
• Blue represents spiral galaxies while orangish-yelow represents elliptical galaxies
• Covers 8.2 billion years into the future at 105 Myr per second (3.5 Myr per frame)
• 1 min 17 seconds - 2301 frames at 30 fps
• No audio

Annotated

• Quicktime MOV format mw_m31_dh_cinematic-anot-1280x720p30.mov (154.8 MB)
• MP4 format mw_m31_dh_cinematic-anot-1280x720p30.mp4 (91.5 MB)

Not Annotated

• Quicktime MOV format mw_m31_dh_cinematic-1280x720p30.mov (137.38 MB)
• MP4 format mw_m31_dh_cinematic-1280x720p30.mp4 (91.51 MB)

Simple Version

• Includes Milky Way and Andromeda
• Camera starts at Milky Way and pulls back to reveal Andromeda, then slowly circles clockwise around collision
• Other aspects same as Cinematic Version

Annotated

• Quicktime MOV format mw_m31_dh_simple-anot-1280x720p30.mov (151.48 MB)
• MP4 format mw_m31_dh_simple-anot-1280x720p30.mp4 (91.48 MB)

Not Annotated

• Quicktime MOV format mw_m31_dh_simple-1280x720p30.mov (135.31 MB)
• MP4 format mw_m31_dh_simple-1280x720p30.mp4 (91.56 MB)

Hammer-Aitoff Allsky Version

• Includes Milky Way, Andromeda, and Triangulum Galaxes - the three largest galaxies in the Local Group
• Camera is fixed at Sun's current position within Milky Way, camera always point at Milky Way center
• View is a Hammer-Aitoff allsky projection
• Other aspects same as Cinematic Version

• Quicktime MOV format mw_m31_dh_hammer-1440x720.mov (92.28 MB)
• MP4 format mw_m31_dh_hammer-1440x720.mp4 (70.73 MB)

Page last updated on: Jun 7, 2012