The Andromeda–Milky Way collision is a galaxy collision predicted to occur in about 4 billion years between the two largest galaxies in the Local Group—the Milky Way(which contains our Solar System and Earth) and the Andromeda Galaxy.
Certainity
Up until 2012, there was no way to know whether the possible collision was definitely going to happen or not.] In 2012, researchers came to the conclusion that the collision is definite after using the Hubble Space Telescope between 2002 and 2010 to track the motion of Andromeda. Such collisions are relatively common. Andromeda, for example, is believed to have collided with at least one other galaxy in the past, and several dwarf galaxies such as SagDEG are currently colliding with the Milky Way and being merged into it.
These studies also suggest that M33, the Triangulum Galaxy – the third largest and brightest galaxy of the Local Group – will participate in this event. Its most likely fate is to end up orbiting the merger remnant of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies to merge with it in an even farther future, but a collision with the Milky Way before our galaxy collides with M31 or being ejected from the Local Group cannot be ruled out
Merger remnant
The galaxy product of the collision has been nicknamed Milkomeda or Milkdromeda. According to simulations, this object will look like a giant elliptical galaxy, but with a center showing less stellar density than current elliptical galaxies.
In the far future the remaining galaxies of the Local Group will coalesce into this object, being the final evolutionary stage of our group of galaxies.
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