• Question: It is predicted Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way yes? If so, what are the odds of a form of matter e.g. another planet or star, colliding with earth, or a planet in our solar system, for example if something about the same size as the earth hit venus what would be the effects?

    Asked by FaZe_swag_man_sam to Joe, Jos, Kate, Lisa, Pierre on 18 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Joshaniel Cooper

      Joshaniel Cooper answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      The odds are actually very very low of something hitting the earth, or even getting close. The galaxy isn’t really very dense with planets or stars even. What is more likely is that something would pass by and give a gravitational nudge as it went past, this might then destabalise a planet and make it crash into something already in the solar system before it was going to anyway. If that happened then the planet would be destroyed, but might stay together. One theory of the formation of the moon is that there were two planets which collided to form Earth and the left over bits are the moon.

    • Photo: Lisa Simmons

      Lisa Simmons answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      As Jos has said the chances are very low of anything ever hitting the earth. Things just whizz by.

    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      One of the last major impacts that the earth is thought to have experienced formed the moon, and has also been suggested to play a role in making the core-mantle-crust structure of the earth. It’s an area of current research. But, as Jos said, once all the planet forming was done and everything settled into otbit around the sun, the chanches of a “Deep Impact” or “Armageddon” (Hollywood likes using science based end of the world scenarios!!) are really small.

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