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The night sky on Earth (assuming it survives) will change dramatically as our Milky Way galaxy merges with its neighbors and distant galaxies recede beyond view.
February 25, 2008 | 9
The sky above a still-forming proto-Earth is filled with the dust, rocks and gas that are shaping our solar system. A rising proto-sun illuminates the dust and rocks that gravity brings hurtling toward this new planet....[More]
Our recently formed moon rises in the night sky. Not in its final orbit yet, the moon is seen much larger in the sky than than today's moon. Magma flow from mare volcanism can be seen on its surface....[More]
An observer near the shoreline of an ocean in its early stages of formation would see comets continue to bring their watery cargo to Earth. The moon continues to recede in the sky....[More]
At the shoreline, on a moonless night, we can see the diffuse disk of the Milky Way stretching across the sky. A few nearby galaxies, such as Andromeda and the Magellanic Clouds, are visible to the naked eye....[More]
The oceans are gone. Our swollen red giant sun gives way to the night sky. We are probably gone from the planet, but if someone were here, they would see the stars shimmering wildly in the sky as rising heat distorts what little atmosphere is left....[More]
Will anyone see the spectacular view of Andromeda moving toward us and filling the night sky? The coming collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way could bode ill for the planet, because it could kick Earth into the distant outskirts of the galaxy....[More]
The last stars burn out. Apart from glowing black holes and any artificial lighting that civilizations have rigged up, the universe goes black. The galaxy later collapses into a black hole....[More]
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9 Comments
Add Comment"Faster than light"? Is that correct, SciAm?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes. Space can expand faster than light. Space is not a "thing" or information moving faster than light, so it is allowed and what we believe is happening as the Universe continues to accelerate its expansion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome crazy, fanciful thinking here:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnce the local super cluster has collect all it mighty mass into one humungus black hole and all of the other galaxies are too far away, moving away at faster than the speed of light, wouldn't the universe have effectively broken itself into pieces? No one or nothing near a local Humungus black hole could ever reach another one out there.
And in these new, spawned universe pieces, the difference between the infinite density of the black hole and the incredible "thinness" of space, wouldn't there be a point where something would happen to try to balance out it out? There must be a tipping point that would cause the black hole to explode? Is there any physics to back such an idea? Could that be how new universes are born from the explosion of matter out into the virtual nothingness?
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Great Scott! So we are at the center of the universe. Do ya see the "red flags" here? I say we're missing some information.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjim
Dallas
Thank you for the beautiful artwork. I enjoyed it just for itself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeggy
Thanks for the beautiful artwork. I enjoyed it for itself alone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBeautiful artwork. Too bad Earth will not last as a viable planet to see our galaxy isolated in the void. AR
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBlack holes emit radiation from their poles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnce a black hole has finished gobbling up all the matter that can venture over its event horizon it will continue to spew out radiation until it has shrunk to zero mass
Space has no mass so it needs no energy to move or expand.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this