NASA will reveal new discoveries about the violent fate of our Milky Way galaxy on Thursday (May 31), the space agency has announced.
NASA will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Scientists will discuss new Hubble Space Telescope findings about the inevitable crash of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, which will occur billions of years from now.
“Because of uncertainties in Andromeda’s motion, it has not been possible to determine whether the Milky Way will have a head-on collision or glancing blow with the neighboring galaxy billions of years in the future,” NASA officials said in a media alert Friday (May 25). “Hubble’s precise observations will settle this question.”
Several Hubble telescope program scientists and astronomers will participate in Thursday’s briefing. They include:
· Roeland van der Marel, astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore
· Sangmo Tony Sohn, astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore
· Rosemary Wyse, professor, Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
· John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
The briefing will air live on NASA TV, which is available here: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
http://www.space.com/15899-nasa-hubble-discovery-milky-fate.html
Animation of two spiral galaxies colliding:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/seuforum/animations/animations/galaxycollision.mpg
