For decades, astronomers have spun a dramatic tale: our Milky Way galaxy, a shimmering spiral of stars, gas, and dust, was destined to smash into its cosmic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, in a spectacular galactic merger billions of years from now. But a new study, powered by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Gaia observatory, is rewriting this narrative. After running 100,000 computer simulations, researchers now suggest there’s only a 50-50 chance of this galactic showdown. The Milky Way and Andromeda might just glide past each other, like ships in the cosmic night.
