The future Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy merger

Abstract

According to our current knowledge about physical and dynamical properties of the Milky Way-M31 system, it seems likely that these two galaxies will collide and eventually merge in a time very sensitive to initial conditions. Using the HiGPUs code, we have performed several numerical simulations to study the dynamics of the system, trying to define the role of indeterminacy in the present day observed relative velocities of the two galaxies and the time of the merger. At the same time, we have followed the dynamics of the two massive black holes sitting in the galactic centers, to check (within the space and time resolution limits of our simulation) their relative motion upon the completion of the galaxies merger process.