Andromeda's Disaster. What Does the Galaxy Closest to Us Conceal?

2,500,000 years ago the Andromeda galaxy a giant star expires close to the galactic core the last seconds of its life pass in an explosion of tremendous Force trillions of tons of red hot plasma explode in a huge cloud turning the nearest planets and satellites to dust a powerful electromagnetic impulse pierces outter space in all directions millions of years later it is to reach the Earth [Music] the year 1885 the planet Earth the attention of all astronomers on the planet is focused on an amazing astronomical event a remarkably bright flare in the region of the Andromeda

nebula briefly eclipses the nearest stars with its radiance this amazing Supernova is dubbed s Andromeda and its anomalous parameters buffle astronomers for a long time but just 6 months later the star rapidly dims and soon disappears from the sky forever [Music] unfortunately at the time of the flare generally accepted Notions about the structure of the universe were far from those of today at that time astronomers were not yet able to measure distances to Cosmic bodies so the bright spot in the constellation Andromeda also known as object M31 was considered an ordinary reflection nebula on the

outskirts of the Milky Way meanwhile with the Advent of new more powerful telescope and the development of space technology the situation gradually changed as soon as in the 1920s observations by Edwin Hubble and other astronomers proved that the Andromeda nebula is a different galaxy much like the Milky Way about a century has passed since then and science has moved far ahead it is currently known that the Andromeda galaxy has a spiral structure and comprises about a TR billion stars as for its diameter it exceeds 150,000 light years and its mass is relatively small and ranges

from 800 billion to 1 and A2 trillion solar masses about the same as The Milky Way this is thought to be the case due to the abundance of red dwarves and less dark matter in its composition like all spiral galaxies Andromeda has a massive nucleus at its Center made up of millions of closely spaced Stars its Radiance is so great that it dazzles observation instruments making it impossible to distinguish individual stars on account of this the remnants of the 1885 Supernova known as s Andromeda have long been impossible to trace although surviving records clearly indicate

that it exploded near the center of the Galaxy it was only in 1988 100 and 3 years after the legendary flare that a small nebula was detected at a small distance from the nucleus a dark spot standing out against the background of the dazzling central region with the help of spectral analysis and proper motion modeling it was firmly established that it is a remnant of as Andromeda thus this Cosmic object became the first Supernova detected outside the Milky Way careful study of the central part of Andromeda will clearly reveal its unique difference from other spiral

galaxies it is an unusual double nucleus the origin of which is not yet fully understood the brighter and larger part is located slightly away from the geometric center of the Galaxy and is a giant supercluster of many bright stars with a total size of about seven Li years the second part on the other hand is closer to the center and is noticeably dimmer and smaller with a diameter of about 1.3 Li years it is assumed that this region hides inside a super massive black hole about 50 million times heavier than the sun the nature of

such a strange phenomenon remains a subject of scientific debate According to some assumptions in the distant past M31 absorbed in CED a rather large satellite Galaxy and the bright region is a remnant of its core according to other hypotheses the center of Andromeda still has a single structure however it is separated by a bound of opaque dust creating an unusual Optical effect due to the remoteness and inconvenient location of the galaxy in space it is still impossible to collect enough data to confirm these hypotheses one way or another meanwhile as we continue traveling through the

central region of Andromeda you can also spot one of the most mysterious objects in this galaxy here is its tongue twisting name on your screens the key feature of this Celestial body is that it is almost impossible to see even in the most powerful optical telescope however everything changes if you use x-rays in this part of the spectrum this star is the brightest point in the Galaxy observations show that the object is a system made up of two components one of which is a low mass neutron star its radius is only a few dozen kilom

and it completes a full turn around its axis roughly every 3 seconds the second star of the system is a larger object although it is relatively dim it's most likely a red giant calcul ation show that the total mass of both components is not more than three solar masses and the distance between them is very small every 4 hours the neutron star is eclipsed by the other star and this causes its Luminosity to sharply drop to recover its previous values later it is also very likely that due to the small distance between the Stars the

neutron star is gradually absorbing its companion which is why its mass is is constantly growing according to calculations this process will last several tens of millions of years and eventually the second star will be torn apart by tidal forces and turn into a bright and hot ring-like nebula incidentally this amazing object is only one of the many stars densely surrounding andromeda's core together they form a massive bulge with a diameter of about 12,000 light years which has a noticeably elongated shape also M31 has a pronounced bar which however faces us with its narrow side and

so is almost invisible to The Observer on the Earth according to calculations the bar's length measures about 177,000 light years with a width about 62,000 light years in total about 30% of the Andromeda Galaxy's entire mass is concentrated in its central part while we are gradually moving away we can see that the edges of the bar serve as the basis for two giant spiral arms Majestic coils encompassing the center of the Galaxy at the same time there are darker gaps between them whose width is significantly larger than those in the Milky Way reaching 13,000 light

years calculations show that the Andromeda arms contain about 56% of the Galaxy's Stellar mass as well as some dark matter under the influence of gravity Interstellar dust and gas concentrate in the arms forming numerous Stellar nurseries regions where new Stars Are Born over time these gas and dust clouds evolve into open clusters and associations containing a great variety of young Stars their light is reflected and Scattered by Cosmic nebula endowing the galactic disc with an incredible shimmering pallet of colors and in one of these clusters there is a remarkable star dubbed AE Andromeda it is

one of the brightest stars in the galaxy and is a hot blue giant whose Luminosity varies without any apparent pattern such objects are known as luminous blue variables and are extremely rare currently only a few dozen are known because of the extremely high temperature and pressure the outer layers of AE Andromeda are constantly in a state of unstable equilibrium and the processes running in the interior of the star are largely chaotic and unpredictable from time to time streams of red hot plasma collide with each other generating extremely bright flares and enhancing the Luminosity of the

object by several dozen times hypothetically the most powerful of them can increase the brightness of the star several million times such a phenomenon is called a supernova imposter and may occur at any time measuring the parameters of such a star what with its instability and remote location is an extremely difficult task nevertheless with the help of modern Ultra precise telescopes it turned out that the mass of a Andromeda lies in the range from 50 to 120 solar masses and the radius at the peak of pulsations measures about 55 times the radius of our sun which

is only slightly smaller than the orbit of mercury at the same time its surface temperature is close to 20,000 kelv and its Luminosity is 500 to 700,000 times greater than that of the sun just like all blue giants a e Andromeda generates remarkably strong Stellar Wind whose speed according to calculations can reach 100 kilm per second because of this the object loses about two quadrillion tons of matter per second which means that its mass decreases annually by an amount similar to 10 planets such as Earth however for such a large star it is almost imperceptible

because AE Andromeda will complete its Evolution much sooner than the losses incurred from the Stellar Wind will reach at least a tenth of a percent of its mass the fact is that despite its age of 2 million years which is mere seconds by space standards AE Andromeda has already completed most of its life cycle according to calculations within the next million years the star will go supernova leaving behind a black hole surrounded by a vast gas and dust nebula speaking about the age of the Stars One cannot help help noticing that they are scattered unevenly

throughout the Galaxy thus we can look into andromeda's past and observe how it was being formed the oldest Stars some 11 to 13 billion years old are concentrated in the central part of the Galaxy in contrast the dis and spiral arms mostly contain younger Stars ones formed about 3 to 4 billion years ago here the numerous Stellar nurseries contain pretty much baby stars born only a few million years ago which is practically seconds by space standards this means that in the first stage of its Evolution M31 was much smaller in size and its shape resembled

an ellipse also by analyzing the parameters of individual stars in Andromeda it is possible to Define an important but at the same time rather conditional concept known as Galactic habitable zone it is believed that the concentration of stars in the central part of Andromeda as well as the high level of radiation and unstable orbits of potential exoplanets make this Zone unfavorable for the Genesis of Life at the same time distant planetary systems located at the periphery of the Galaxy are too poor in heavy Elements which implies that there are not that many earthlike planets therefore

only the intermediate region of the Galaxy can be considered hypothetically habitable it is in this kind of Zone at a distance of about several tens of thousands of light years from the center of the Galaxy that a small faint object known as Mega ml7 is located it is a red giant with a relatively small mass of about 50% that of the Sun in 1999 thanks to a fortunate coincidence astronomers were able to record the phenomenon of micr lensing during which they were able to study this in conspicuous and distant space body in more detail the

results of these measurements helped determine the mass and spectrum of the Star as well as the temperature of its surface which was about 3,700 Kelvin but the most important observation was the rhythmic deviation of the trajectory of the star from the main direction of its movement such as stations are considered a sign of a possible presence of a fairly massive companion the hypothetical object was dubbed Mega ml 7B and is now considered a potential exoplanet if the existence of this celestial bodies confirmed it will be the first exoplanet in the history of astronomy to be

discovered outside the Milky Way information about this object is still rather scant but calculations show that it is highly likely to be a gas giant with a mass of about 6.3 times that of Jupiter there are also reports that this system is likely to be as diverse as our own in terms of chemical elements which means that there is a good chance of finding a variety of Planet types within its boundaries not only gas giants but also Rocky celestial bodies similar to Earth when we observe the Andromeda galaxy another striking feature that becomes immediately apparent

is the great multitude of star clusters and associations whose number is much bigger than in the Milky Way in total about 460 globular star clusters and about 10,000 dopen clusters are known to exist in M31 as well as several dozen large star associations some of them are concentrated in the center of the Galaxy others are scattered in the Halo and still other ones have settled right in its spiral arms and one of the largest and most noticeable structures is NGC 206 a cluster located almost to the very edge of the galactic disc previously this Association

was considered a globular cluster but now due to its size it has received a higher status and is called a St Association in this region of space with a radius of about 200 light years roughly 300 extremely bright stars and countless less noticeable ones are concentrated with a total mass of about 200,000 solar masses their overall Luminosity is so great that the association is visible from Earth in an AM telescope along with the core and arms of the Galaxy according to observations NGC 206 formed after a merger of at least two large gas and dust

nebula separated by a dark bound of Interstellar dust the age of one of them is about 10 million years the other is noticeably older having formed about 50 million years ago the single giant nebula became a point of gravitational attraction for Interstellar gas which led to the formation of a great area of star formation over time some of its Stars will dissipate in the surrounding space with the rest forming a large globular cluster the galactic dis M31 contains many such formations and not all of them originally formed within its boundaries it is assumed that many

large Stellar associations are the remnants of major Cosmic catastrophes of the past according to calculations throughout its entire existence Andromeda obs absorbed more than 100 satellite galaxies some of them dissolved Without a Trace While others turned into giant Stellar streams the collision with the object known to us as M32 may be considered the greatest this compact elliptical galaxy is located above the Andromeda disc only 177,000 L years away from it its diameter is about 8,000 L years and considering its small size the galaxy has a rather big Mass about a billion solar masses in the

center of M32 there is a super massive black hole about 2 and 1/2 million times heavier than our star which is surprising for such a compact object in fact M32 is just a remnant of a much larger Galaxy that survived the great catastrophe according to data from the Spitzer orbiting telescope about 800 million years ago a large satellite Galaxy pierced andromeda's disc at high speed leaving a gigantic hole in one of the Spiral arms during this Collision M32 lost most of its stars and it is unlikely to be restored to its former appearance it is

assumed that it could have been a full elliptical galaxy or a small spiral galaxy of which only the central part remains in addition to M32 Andromeda has about 30 satellite galaxies connected to it by invisible gravitational threads the brightest and largest of them is m110 which has a diameter of about 15,000 light years most of the rest fall into the category of dwarf spherical galaxies and are located within a million light years nevertheless together they form the Andromeda subgroup which is part of the local group its other members are the Milky Way and its surroundings

as well as the triangulum Galaxy and some other objects inexurable gravitational forces are gradually pulling the local group towards a single center that is why the Andromeda galaxy is rapidly moving in our Direction covering over 300 km every second in a few billion years Andromeda will merge with a Milky Way to form a giant elliptical galaxy great gravitational forces will mess up the stars of both galaxies randomly scattering them in Space by this time our planet will have been mercilessly scorched by the destructive rays of the dying sun or else disappear all together in the

ocean of red hot plasma it is almost impossible to predict what will have happened to mankind by then will we have populated other worlds and recognizably changed under the influence of their natural conditions or will we have disappeared Without a Trace like many ancient species it is hardly possible to answer this question with any certainty [Music] oh [Music]