MILKY LEEWAY

OUR galaxy may not collide with its neighbour after all, new research suggests.

- BY DEAN MURRAY

Phew...galaxy's not going to hit Andromeda will collide in the next five billion years, and only a 50-50 chance of a merger over the next 10 billion years.

For over a century, astronomers believed a dramatic collision between Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies was inevitable.

But new research using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ESA's Gaia observatory has cast doubt on that fate.