Life as we know it will eventually be extinguished by a black hole that is moving toward Earth and has millions of times the mass of the sun. The Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way’s nearest and largest neighbor, contains the black hole, which is traveling toward Earth at 110 kilometers per second. A supermassive black hole, which stars orbit around to maintain everything in formation, is located at the center of the majority of galaxies.

But because of the Milky Way and Andromeda’s strong gravitational attraction, they are being pushed toward one another and will eventually collide. There is a black hole in the center of the Milky Way, according to Fraser Cain, owner of the astronomy website Universe Today, who wrote this for Phys.org.

“And not just any black hole, it’s a supermassive black hole with more than 4.1 million times the mass of the Sun. It’s right over there, in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation.  Located just 26,000 light-years away. And as we speak, it’s in the process of tearing apart entire stars and star systems, occasionally consuming them, adding to its mass like a voracious shark.”

However, because of Andromeda’s enormity, there can only be one victor when it collides with the Milky Way. We are now secure since Andromeda is 2.5 million light years distant and will take more than four billion years to get to us.

Mr Cain said: “Panic will happen when the Milky Way collides with Andromeda in about 4 billion years. Suddenly, you’ll have two whole clouds of stars interacting in all kinds of ways, like an unstable blended family. Stars that would have been safe will careen past other stars and be deflected down into the maw of either of the two supermassive black holes on hand. Andromeda’s black hole could be 100 million times the mass of the Sun, so it’s a bigger target for stars with a death wish.”

Source : theancientzen.com