---
title: "Why Is Andromeda Coming Towards Us?"
description: "[caption id=\"attachment_35939\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"850\"] Rendering of how the collision might look from an Earth-like planet (Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay, R. Van Der Marel (STSci), T. Hallas, A Mellinger)[/caption] As you may have heard, here in about 5 billion years, the Milky Way won't exist as a singular entity anymore. Rather, as we speak, the Andromeda..."
date: "2015-01-30"
modified: "2015-01-30"
authors:
  - name: "Jaime Trosper"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jaimefqtq"
url: "https://futurism.com/andromeda-coming-towards-us"
categories:
  - "From Quarks to Quasars"
---

# Why Is Andromeda Coming Towards Us?

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Milky-Way-and-Andromeda-Merger.png>)

[![Rendering of how the collision might look from an Earth-like planet (Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay, R. Van Der Marel (STSci), T. Hallas, A Mellinger)](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Milky-Way-and-Andromeda-Merger.png>)](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Milky-Way-and-Andromeda-Merger.png>)
*Rendering of how the collision might look from an Earth-like planet (Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay, R. Van Der Marel (STSci), T. Hallas, A Mellinger)*

As you may have heard, here in about 5 billion years, the Milky Way won't exist as a singular entity anymore. Rather, as we speak, the [Andromeda Galaxy](<https://futurism.com/apotd-heart-of-andromeda>) — the Milky Way's largest neighbor, which currently lurks more than 1,500,000 light-years away from Earth — is slowly inching its way toward us, and the two [will eventually become one](<https://futurism.com/galactic-collisions-milky-way-has-4-billion-years-of-life-left>).

Once that day arrives, Earth will probably be a smoldering pile of ash — having been gobbled up by the Sun a billion years *(or so)* before — but if humanity manages to survive by relocating elsewhere, the view will be rather fantastic.

On the surface, Andromeda's current flight path toward our home galaxy poses a bit of a conundrum: if the [universe is expanding](<https://futurism.com/questions-on-dark-energy-the-expansion-of-the-universe>) as astronomers say, surely Andromeda, like everything else ([the Moon included](<https://futurism.com/if-the-universe-in-expanding-why-isnt-the-moon-receding-from-earth>)) would be moving away from us. Why is the opposite true?

## WATCH: "Why Is Andromeda Coming Towards Us?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghEqtVrWhnY

## Author
Jaime is a freelance writer, who finds great joy in sharing the wonders of universe with others. She used this passion to launch "From Quarks to Quasars" in 2012.