Massive Gas Cloud Speeding Toward Collision With Milky Way

[Ters]

A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is speeding toward a collision with our Milky Way Galaxy, and when it hits -- in less than 40 million years -- it may set off a spectacular burst of stellar fireworks.

"The leading edge of this cloud is already interacting with gas from our Galaxy," said Felix J. Lockman, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), leader of a team of astronomers who used the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to study the object. The scientists presented their findings to the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Austin, Texas.

The cloud, called Smith's Cloud, after the astronomer who discovered it in 1963, contains enough hydrogen to make a million stars like the Sun. Eleven thousand light-years long and 2,500 light-years wide, it is only 8,000 light-years from our Galaxy's disk. It is careening toward our Galaxy at more than 150 miles per second, aimed to strike the Milky Way's disk at an angle of about 45 degrees.

"This is most likely a gas cloud left over from the formation of the Milky Way or gas stripped from a neighbor galaxy. When it hits, it could set off a tremendous burst of star formation. Many of those stars will be very massive, rushing through their lives quickly and exploding as supernovae. Over a few million years, it'll look like a celestial New Year's celebration, with huge firecrackers going off in that region of the Galaxy," Lockman said.

When Smith's Cloud was first discovered, and for decades after, the available images did not have enough detail to show whether the cloud was part of the Milky Way, something being blown out of the Milky Way, or something falling in.

Lockman and his colleagues used the GBT to make an extremely detailed study of hydrogen in Smith's Cloud. Their observations included nearly 40,000 individual pointings of the giant telescope to cover the cloud with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. Smith's Cloud is about 15 degrees long in the sky, 30 times the width of the full moon.

"If you could see this cloud with your eyes, it would be a very impressive sight in the night sky," Lockman said. "From tip to tail it would cover almost as much sky as the Orion constellation. But as far as we know it is made entirely of gas -- no one has found a single star in it."

The detailed GBT study dramatically changed the astronomers' understanding of the cloud. Its velocity shows that it is falling into the Milky Way, not leaving it, and the new data show that it is plowing up Milky Way gas before it as it falls.

"Its shape, somewhat similar to that of a comet, indicates that it's already hitting gas in our Galaxy's outskirts," Lockman said. "It is also feeling a tidal force from the gravity of the Milky Way and may be in the process of being torn apart. Our Galaxy will get a rain of gas from this cloud, then in about 20 to 40 million years, the cloud's core will smash into the Milky Way's plane," Lockman explained.

Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory (http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2008/smithscloud/)

[Juanita Tequila]

ZOMG. We're all gonna die YA'LL!!!

- ~*in 40 million years*~ - :zaru

[Coteaz]

Break out the beer and lawnchairs. :LOS

[Raiden]

Wow, that's going to happen in fourty million years. If mankind managed to remain the dominant lifeform until then, there is something to worry about.

[Lord Yu]

Look on the bright side. We'll have blown ourselves up long before then.:zaru

[BandGeekNinja]

that's sweet! (from an astronomical point of view) too bad earth will be nothing more than a wasteland/abosrbed by the sun by then.

and for those of you going on about doomsday predictions, it will still take a long time for those things to happen (it takes a few billion years for a star to properly form, and a rushed life for a star is a few million years, so we're all good still)

[Denji]

40 million years? I better get advance tickets.:zaru

[AbnormallyNormal]

sounds cool, this is probably just a totally typical part of stellar formation though, i think the title is a tad overdone considering it's in tens of millions of years lol

[Gecka]

Quick honey, BRING OUT THE KIDS!!!

[Graham Aker]

Ooh~ I can't wait! :awesome

[martryn]

In forty million years it won't matter as humans will be at least a Type III civilization, making things like that not that bad as we can either move our civilization away, or prevent it from happening using power sources that make stars look like candles.

EDIT: Wait, is this even dangerous for us?

[ShinigamiBilal]

W00t! YAY!

[Naruto Uzumaki]

Will we survive?????????

[Purgatory]

Anyone got a telescope?

[colours]

I want to be around 40 million years from now :D:

[Cirus]

Great, now I got to make out my will, because I was planning on being around in 40 million years.

[GrimaH]

Wait, is this even dangerous for us?

Exactly .

[~Zaxxon~]

Is humanity even gonna last another 40,000,000 years? :zaru

[T4R0K]

Is humanity even gonna last another 40,000,000 years? :zaru

If coakroaches could, we can too. We're a nasty species too.

[Brokensharingan]

If coakroaches could, we can too. We're a nasty species too.

yeah but we're nasty to ourselves with all of our war and all we wont exactly stay alive for long, at least back in the day we didn't have nuclear weapons that could destroy the earth

[Shirker]

We'll be long gone by then. Still pretty cool though. To bad its beauty would have been dampened by the fact that it would kill us all if it happened sooner.

[Inuhanyou]

It wouldent even matter if it was 40,000 years or 40,000,000 we'll be long gone by either time

[Enclave]

Eh, if humanity is still around at that point this shouldn't be a problem at all considering the rate at which technology improves. In fact it would likey be seen as a good chance to gather some hydrogen for whatever use we may have for it at that time.

[Nemesis]

In forty million years it won't matter as humans will be at least a Type III civilization, making things like that not that bad as we can either move our civilization away, or prevent it from happening using power sources that make stars look like candles.

EDIT: Wait, is this even dangerous for us?


I seriously doubt it will be. If it was in our area of the galaxy it would have said so and then put in a don't panic warning. It's actully more than likely going to hit in the perseus arm which is 1/4 the way around our galaxy so it's really too far off for any major disturbance to our solar system.

Based on its direction of motion, the cloud is expected to hit a region about a quarter of the way around the galaxy from the Sun, near the Perseus arm of the galaxy.

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13179-giant-gas-cloud-to-crash-into-our-galaxy.html

But then by that time if we humans evolve and continue going accross the stars it might be one good show for them. But then it might be just a daily occurance thing for a species that may be travelling not only accross stars but also different galaxies completely.

[I]

We're already dead before it will happen... But the future humans will be the one in history...

[neko-sennin]

Interesting stuff, as usual, Ters.

It's just a pity our proportionately short lifespans make observations of this nature so difficult...

[~ Son of SPARDA ~]

If the cosmic, collision course of this gas cloud with our galaxy is forty million years away from an end, then I don't quite understand why the event is/should be newsworthy at this time...

[Kubisa]

The Anti-Spirals are making their move. :pek

[Toby]

No, we will be fine, I assure you. Even all that energy exploding isn't enough to reach out to where we are located on the galaxy disk. Most likely it will be, what the article infers, a show of fireworks for the like of us.

We will hopefully have developed craft or equipment great enough to investigate and observe those gas clouds closer, so we might learn something neat too.

[gabha]

i wonder if the guy who reported it 'Speeding' could keep a straight face while doing so.

[Franklin Stein]

who cares its gonna happen after we die any way lol

[masterriku]

omg it's ultimate galactus I know it is.

[~rocka]

LULZ bible was rightsZ! WE all be DoomedZ !

[Graham Aker]

omg it's ultimate galactus I know it is.
Lawl no its film Galactus, that stupid gas cloud in Rise of the Silver Surfer! :lmao

Epic fail, that film.

[Xion]

I'll be waiting for it. :pek

[Hustler]

hopefully naruto is finished by then :LOS

[Hollowized]

Wow, that's going to happen in fourty million years. If mankind managed to remain the dominant lifeform until then, there is something to worry about.

Probably not really anything to worry about then ether. If mankind survives for that long, we'll probably be living all over the universe.

I doubt even Star Wars is set that long into the future. Probably not even close.

[Random Nobody]

Dammit I wanna see this, it sounds cool. This is why we need immortal robot bodies.:(

[iDrum]

I wonder how much the guy that discovered this gets paid? We should take that money and use it where it matters in the present.

[Hachimata]

Well, at least we probably will be gone by then =/.

[XII_Itachi]

At least I won't be around 40 million years from now.

Although... I'd really want to see it...

[Last of the Arrancar]

we better develop that space travelling program and kolonize other planets :S

[UnblessedSoul]

We want to know this because we will all still be alive by then Lol

[piccun²]

A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is speeding toward a collision with our Milky Way Galaxy, and when it hits -- in less than 40 million years -- it may set off a spectacular burst of stellar fireworks.


I blame pollution :pek

[Freiza]

A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is speeding toward a collision with our Milky Way Galaxy, and when it hits -- in less than 40 million years -- it may set off a spectacular burst of stellar fireworks.
:facepalm .

[Centuryslayer]

I blame sex before marriage :oh

now pardon me while I´m off to loot and pillage

[Highmura]

Lolz this reminds me of Mass Effect :)

[Shiron]

:facepalm .
It is speeding... It's traveling at 150 miles/second (which isn't too fast compared to something like how fast our Sun is orbiting the galactic center, but is still pretty fast for just a cloud of hydrogen gas)... And 40 million years is a really small amount of time on a cosmic scale. 40 million years to the universe is like maybe a day or two to us.

[dodgekfc]

man in 40 million years i wish i would be alvive when that happens

[AbnormallyNormal]

the funniest part is how they add in there "less than" 40 million years, also how they throw in the 40 million years only once as a casual afterthought in the middle of them trying to make this sound dramatic and important to us LOL. i mean, why cant they just state "scientists discovered more about how possibly a great multiple of new stars can get formed by studying a gigantic cloud of gas which is approaching our galaxy" something more objective and less hysterical like that

[maximilyan]

:laugh i'll be long gone before then.. so i'm not bothered too much about this.. though i must admit it'd be nice to see a galactic firework display.

["LADY KISS"]

Spacie, well.. now that we're all going to die the next Cigaret I smoke isn't going to make a diffrence xD

[Effloresce]

That's actually kinda cool.
Atleast I know I'll be dead by then so I'm all good. :zaru

[Sasori-puppet#66]

I need to start eating healthier! :P

[Armaiti]

"Something is happening far away in the universe and it's coming closer."

"We're all going to die, head for the bunkers!"

Guys, this isn't something that would threaten any life on Earth!

[Boromir]

Walt Disney will have to get unfrozen before then.

[The Drunken Monkey]

Shiiit, the world is supposed to end long before 40 million years.

[x0Uchiha0x]

wow, if humans are still alive in 40 million...damn, could you just imagine the anxiety?

[Shinobi Mugen]

Will everyone saying the earth is gonna be destroyed in 40 million years please go buy an astronomy book right now. It a cloud of hydrogen gas hitting our galaxy, a structure that's 99,9999% empty space. The only things that's gonna collide are hydrogen particles with other hydrogen particles creating clumps of hydrogen gas that will attract more hydrogen gas, increase in size, and form new stars. This isn't like a car crash and there's not gonna be large scale cataclismic destruction....

[HAL 9000]

Forgive me if I don't worry TOO much.

[Freija]

ZOMG. We're all gonna die YA'LL!!!

- ~*in 40 million years*~ - :zaru

oh my, im shivering... OH WAI~IM GONNA BE DEAD BY THEN

[Sin]

Don't worry guys, I'll take some pictures for everyone and post them on NF :awesome

[Graham Aker]

I wonder if NF will still be on-line in 40 million years. :awesome

[Rolling~Star]

We better get ready. Time is of the essence. :pek

["LADY KISS"]

We better get ready. Time is of the essence. :pek

Yeah, Let us allready start packing, so when the blow comes we can all be gone :pek