What Does The Milky Way Galaxy Look Like In 400,000 Years? Watch This!

Dhir Acharya - Dec 11, 2020

Recently, the ESA (European Space Agency) created a time-lapse with 60 seconds of showing how the Milky Way galaxy will look like in the next 400,000 years.

It wasn’t until a few days ago that the world saw 40,000 shooting stars burning across the sky all at once. Recently, the ESA (European Space Agency) created a time-lapse with 60 seconds of showing how the Milky Way galaxy will look like in the next 400,000 years, according to the space agency in its blog post on the website for its Gaia space observatory.

The new simulation shows 40,000 stars, all of which are within 325 light-years from the Sun, blazing through space as well as long trails of light behind them. Each point of light represents an actual object in our galaxy and all the trails indicate the projected movement of the objects through the Milky Way over the next 400,000 years. Streaks of light that are faster and brighter are those closer to the solar system while the dimmer, slower ones are farther from our solar system.

milky way — The simulation of the Milky Way in 400,000 years

According to ESA researchers, the simulation illustrated an unsurprising pattern, in which most stars are focused on the right side of the screen while there’s barely anything left on the left side. This is because the sun is moving too, making passing stars look more concentrated in the direction opposite to the motion of the sun in the galaxy. The blog post says:

“If you imagine yourself moving through a crowd of people (who are standing still), then in front of you the people will appear to move apart as you approach them, while behind you the people will appear to stand ever closer together as you move away from them.”

“This effect also happens due to the motion of the sun with respect to the stars.”