Astronomers have determined the density and speed of dark matter in our corner of the universe.

The finding helps bring dark matter out of the realm of the hypothetical and places scientists a few steps to closer figuring out what this invisible stuff that pervades the universe and holds galaxies together is made of. It also settles once and for all the question of which galaxy—our Milky Way or Andromeda—is more massive.

OK, I have heard in the past it was the Milky Way, then Andromeda now latest reserach puts the Milky Way back as the winner.

From http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060221_stues_dark_matter.html

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Astronomers have determined the density and speed of dark matter in our corner of the universe.

The finding helps bring dark matter out of the realm of the hypothetical and places scientists a few steps to closer figuring out what this invisible stuff that pervades the universe and holds galaxies together is made of. It also settles once and for all the question of which galaxy—our Milky Way or Andromeda—is more massive.

OK, I have heard in the past it was the Milky Way, then Andromeda now latest reserach puts the Milky Way back as the winner.

From http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060221_stues_dark_matter.html

Interesting.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

Milky Way vs. Andromeda

When they crash into each other in a few billion years, neither wins.

Oh, I see you were talking mass, sorry just ignore me.lol

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Milky Way vs. Andromeda
When they crash into each other in a few billion years, neither wins.

I've heard that when they do collide they will just pass through each other, and then yo-yo around a commom centre of gravity until they coalesce into one big elliptical galaxy.

Most stars should be ok as they are separated by huge distances (relative to each other), though I'd hate to be around if some of that dark matter crashes into our neighbourhood.

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Join TeamACC

Sometimes I think we are alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we are not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

Andromeda has a bigger diameter, but the Milky Way has more mass. This makes the Milky Way a bigger galaxy.

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Astronomers have determined the density and speed of dark matter in our corner of the universe.

The finding helps bring dark matter out of the realm of the hypothetical and places scientists a few steps to closer figuring out what this invisible stuff that pervades the universe and holds galaxies together is made of. It also settles once and for all the question of which galaxy—our Milky Way or Andromeda—is more massive.

OK, I have heard in the past it was the Milky Way, then Andromeda now latest reserach puts the Milky Way back as the winner.

From http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060221_stues_dark_matter.html

I like how theories are made up to explain theories that where designed to explain another unverified theory.

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TEAM
LL

When they crash into each other in a few billion years, neither wins.

It's far from certain the two will "crash into" or pass through each other; although we know the distance is closing because of M31's radial velocity, since we have no way of measuring tangential velocity we can't tell what will actually happen. Maybe after a million years or so, assuming we're still here, we'll be able to determine M31's proper motion and make a better prediction.

As an analogy, imagine that you're walking on a sidewalk, and several blocks ahead you can see someone walking toward you on the opposite side of the street. As long as you're a fair distance apart, the other person will appear to get larger and larger, indicating that you're getting closer together; it's only when you're both on the same block, nearly across from each other, that it will become clear that you'll pass each other instead of colliding. (This analogy works better if we start with the premise that there's no a priori reason to assume the other person will remain on the sidewalk or indeed walk parallel to the street.)

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I envision it more like 600 billion magnetic socks and two black holes in a washing machine.

:)

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

The Milky Way and its nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, don’t resemble each other much now, but a new study suggests the two shared similar beginnings and evolved in similar ways, at least over their first several billion years.

Researchers reached this surprising conclusion after surveying thousands of stars in Andromeda’s halo and finding they are "metal-poor," or practically void of all elements other than hydrogen.

Astronomers had previously thought that Andromeda’s stellar halo was metal-rich while the Milky Way’s halo was metal-poor, said study team member Scott Chapman of the California Institute of Technology.

The finding that the Milky Way and Andromeda are similarly impoverished when it comes to metals suggests they share similar evolutionary histories.

More at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060228_andromeda_halo.html

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