Galaxy collision might send our solar system hurtling into space

A collision with close by galaxy could open the Milky Way galaxy's black hole which could result in our solar system hurling into space. However, this collision could take up to two billion years to happen, say scientists.

Researchers at Durham University have predicted that the Large Magellanic Cloud might hit the Milky Way in the future. But there's a possibility that the collision could occur much earlier than expected.

As for the aftermath of the collision, the now-active black hole would throw out high-energy radiation and while this isn't expected to affect life on our planet scientists say there is a small chance that the collision might send our solar system into space at high speed.

"While this will not affect solar system, we might not escape unscathed from the collision. It could knock us out of the Milky Way into interstellar space," said a scientist from Durham University.

Besides, an Italian astronomer said that supermassive black holes are millions and billions of times greater in mass than the Sun and grow huge by swallowing other black holes.

Fabio Pacucci, a Yale Postdoctoral Associate, explains through an animated TED-Ed video that is titled "Could the Earth be swallowed by a black hole?" how a supermassive black hole works as a "cosmic vacuum cleaner with infinite capacity", swallowing everything that comes in its way due to its immense gravitational field.