The Local Group comes together
The Milky Way, Andromeda and dozens of dwarfs settle into the gravitationally bound family they still form.
- When
- Known to
- ± 2 billion years
- Era
- Galaxy Assembly, Stelliferous
Our galaxy and its neighbours stop receding with the general expansion and become bound to one another, held by their own gravity and by the dark matter around them. The Local Group contains more than eighty known galaxies dominated by Andromeda and the Milky Way, which are now approaching each other and will merge several billion years from now. Everything outside groups like this is being carried away by the expansion of space.