Astronomers at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have recently published a discovery that the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest major galaxy to our home MIlky Way Galaxy, is smaller than we thought.

The recent study states that the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is approximately 800 billion times the mass of our Sun: around the same mass of the Milky Way Galaxy, and around half of its previously estimated mass. The discovery was made by studying the orbits of high-velocity stars, which indicated that there was far less dark matter in the Andromeda Galaxy than previously thought.

What this groundbreaking discovery means for the eventual collision of the two galaxies is still unclear, but future simulations will tell us more about the future of the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Interested in learning more breaking space news? LSC Space News Now appears at the end of each Wonders of the Night Sky show. Click here to see our full list of shows in the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, the largest and most technologically advanced planetarium in the Western Hemisphere.