You may think that there’s nothing more depressing than schlepping to work on a tube train that’s literally as hot as hell.
But it turns the universe has some even grimmer treats in store than the superheated summer commute.
Astronomers from the University of Hawaii have released a map of a gigantic ’empty region’ near the Milky Way called ‘The Local Void’.
This expanse of nothingness is so bleak that it makes even the dullest places here on Earth look like heavenly paradises. Yes, even Slough and Milton Keynes.
The team examined the motion of other galaxies to construct a 3D map of the void, using the same technique they employed in 2014 to identify the full extent of our home ‘supercluster’ of over one hundred thousand galaxies and then give it the name Laniakea, meaning ‘immense heaven’ in Hawaiian.
The university wrote: Using the observations of galaxy motions, they infer the distribution of mass responsible for that motion, and construct three-dimensional maps of our local Universe.
‘Galaxies not only move with the overall expansion of the universe, they also respond to the gravitational tug of their neighbors and regions with a lot of mass.
‘As a consequence, relative to the overall expansion they are moving towards the densest areas and away from regions with little mass – the voids.’
Scientists recently worked out how long we’ve got until the Milky Way smashes into a neighbouring galaxy – and you don’t need to be too worried just yet.
At some point in the future, our galaxy will plough into Andromeda and form a massive new star system.
It’s now believed this will happen in 4.5 billion years time, rather than 3.9 billion years into the future.
Astronomers used data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite to study the movements of Andromeda.
They said the collision will happen later than expected and will also be ‘less destructive’, with the two galaxies hitting each other in a ‘glancing blow’ rather than a head-on collision.
‘This finding is crucial to our understanding of how galaxies evolve and interact,” says Timo Prusti, ESA Gaia Project Scientist.
So what will happen when Andromeda hits the Milky Way?
With both galaxies made up of more than 100 billion stars, you might think that the collision will be explosive.
But it’s believed that gap between stars is so huge that the actual number of collisions is likely to be small.
However, the stellar dance caused by this cosmic carve-up will still be very dramatic.
The gravitational chaos caused when the two galaxies begin to interact with each other will throw stars out of their orbit and into a huge swirl.
It’s likely the two galaxies would then settle down to form a new galaxy.
Our own solar system would probably survive this process, although it seems unlikely that humanity will be around to see it.
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