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Could the Milky Way be headed for a collision?

NPR | By Regina G. Barber,
Rachel Carlson, Emily Kwong, Rebecca Ramirez
Published July 2, 2025 at 10:12 AM EDT
A NASA visualization showing the Milky Way and Andromeda at four billion years from now, if they make an encounter.
Galaxy illustrations courtesy of NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI) T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger. Visualization courtesy of NASA, ESA, and F. Summers (STScI)
A NASA visualization showing the Milky Way and Andromeda at four billion years from now, if they make an encounter.

The Andromeda galaxy lies just beyond (...OK, about 2.5 million light-years beyond) our galaxy, the Milky Way.

These galaxies are more than just neighbors: They're gravitationally bound. And for the past hundred years or so, scientists thought these galaxies existed in a long-term dance of doom — destined to crash into one another and combine into one big galactic soup.

But a recent paper out in the journal Nature Astronomy suggests this cosmic game of bumper cars may never come to a head at all. NPR Short Wave host Regina G. Barber chats with computational astrophysicist Arpit Arora to learn more about the odds.

Interested in more space episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts, and the audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley.

Copyright 2025 NPR

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Regina G. Barber
Regina G. Barber is Short Wave's Scientist in Residence. She contributes original reporting on STEM and guest hosts the show.
Rachel Carlson
Rachel Carlson (she/her) is a production assistant at Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. She gets to do a bit of everything: researching, sourcing, writing, fact-checking and cutting episodes.
Emily Kwong
Emily Kwong (she/her) is the reporter for NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. The podcast explores new discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines — all in about 10 minutes, Monday through Friday.
See stories by Emily Kwong
Rebecca Ramirez
Rebecca Ramirez (she/her) is the founding producer of NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. It's a meditation in how to be a Swiss Army Knife, in that it involves a little of everything — background research, finding and booking sources, interviewing guests, writing, cutting the tape, editing, scoring ... you get the idea.
See stories by Rebecca Ramirez
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