New research has cast doubt on the long-held theory that our galaxy, the Milky Way, will collide with its largest neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, in 4.5 billion years-time. Scientists used data from NASA’s Hubble and the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescopes to simulate how the Milky Way, Andromeda and their most massive satellite galaxies could evolve over the next 10 billion years. In around half of the simulated scenarios, the Milky Way and Andromeda experience at least one close encounter, before losing enough orbital momentum to eventually merge. Cosmic fireworkIf the Milky Way and Andromeda are to collide and merge, the researchers found that it would most likely happen in 7 to 8 billion years’ time, significantly later than previously predicted. More data, more knowledgeMeanwhile, uncertainty about the future of the Milky Way and Andromeda may not last.