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Our galaxy is heading for a big collision

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Night sky in 3.75bn years from now (NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger)Image source, NASA

Here's the bad news - our galaxy is on a collision course and is set to crash into a neighbouring one!

The good news is that it won't happen for four BILLION years!

Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to work out when our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy will smash into each other.

They are being pulled together by gravity, and two billion years after colliding they will exist as one single galaxy.

They are 2.5 million light years apart at the moment and travelling together at 250,000 miles-per-hour.

Scientists reckon that it's unlikely the Earth will be destroyed when it finally happens.