Judging galaxy distance?

[WeaponsTheyFear]

I had a question I have been thinking about. Scientists say our own Milky Way is due to collide with Andromeda in a few billion years or so. Considering that the light we are seeing of Andromeda is so old, and we use that to say it is X million light years away, wouldn't that really mean that it is closer than that? I have been thinking about this but wasn't quite sure of the answer.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Welcome to Space.com.

Yes, Andromeda is closer now than when the light left there, but not that much closer. It's only ~ 2.5 million light years to Andromeda, and the collision is a few billion years in the future, so the diffence is not too great.

 

[redwine]

considering that light still travels at an aproximate 186,000 mile per second,...
11,160,000 miles per minute.., 669,600,000 MPH, btw i hope light dont pass through virginia,, reckless driving lmao :evil:
16,070,400,000 miles per day, that means approximatly since we are still trying to determine the exact speed of light, although we will stick with einstiens measurements as they are still used by nasa thus far today, as he has proven to be pretty darn close and precise in all his predictions..
light travels .. 5,865,696,000,000 miles per year, ya trilions..
now considering andromeda is moving at the aproximate speed of, 74.65 miles per second.. or 124km per second
andromeda is 2,500,000 light years away.. or in miles.. 14,664,240,000,000,000,000 (Quintillion) is the distance light traveled in 2.5 million years, ya it left andromeda that long ago..
so if that galaxy moves 2,354,162,400
so in 2.5 million years.. it traveled 5,885,406,000,000,000 miles..
14,664,240,000,000,000,000 minus
5,885,406,000,000,000 equals
14,658,354,594,000,000,000 miles left to go..
ok quick math.. lets divide the original values..
2491.6275954454119223040857334226 times 2.5million years cough..
lets round it off to 2491
just to give us some time to make sure we are safe..

6,227,500,000 give or take a few hundred years.. due to unknown specifics of speed of light.. woohoo
ok so all we have to worry about is hurling planets we can't see.. that might of been launced billions of years ago.. or twin suns that entered the grasp of a black hole, one escaped and is hurdling at incredible speeds towards us..
quick arm the photon torpedoes..!!!!!

anyways i was pondering the same question..
i see all this talk about the galaxy andromeda mixing with us, and was curious..
did these guys do the math that the light we see is 2.54million years old?
right so even if they dont.. its no biggie.. only if things travel faster then light..
what if one enters a worm hole.. or some odd species dont like the fact we might be able to do more then look though telescopes opens a wormhole and hurdles asteroids towards us wow..
with the size of the univers, the majority of scientist proving the fact habitible planets exist, that asteroids carry the make up of life that made life earth..
the possiblities that we did nor originate from earth..
the fact that we truly do not know..
what if we are just matter from another universe, made over.. just this time the boiling pot made a better materioal giving us a chance to succeed this time around?? so many possibilities..
if we only lived for billions of years per life that would be interesting Right?