NASA has glimpsed our galaxy's fate in the three-way galactic brawl

A stunning image of the Hubble Space Telescope of three galaxies tearing each other apart provided astronomers with a first glimpse into the fate of the Milky Way.

Situated 389 light-years from Earth in the constellation of the Lynx, Arp 195 is a cluster of galaxies composed of three galaxies that tear each other apart in a three-way gravitational shot. It is a destiny that astronomers predict will befall the Milky Way when, in 4.5 billion years, it is set to collide with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, according to an assessment by the European Space Agency.

The picture was captured only two weeks after a five-week pause in the 31-year-old space telescope operation. In June, NASA lost all control of Hubble following an issue that rendered its payload computer inoperable, but it is now back in action after a switch to backup hardware in July.

NASA says that it captured the imagination of the three "galactic brothers and sisters bickering" long after being trapped by each other's gravitational pull. The three galaxies are now spiraling in more and more close orbits, colliding and pulling wire from matter as they do.

Now that the galaxies are in a tight orbit around each other, the largest one can use its more powerful gravity to snare material from its smaller rivals, creating the streak of dust, gas, and stars between them that can be seen in the image.

Galaxies will eventually fuse. Although these sounds are apocalyptic, there is so much space between the stars in galaxies that stars are very unlikely to clash with each other. In fact, the addition of additional material through fusion should increase the number of stars born in the newly unified galaxy.

The same fate awaits our galactic home, the Milky Way, when it finally merges with Andromeda — relatively few stars will collide and our solar system will likely survive largely unscathed, although it could be flung into a different path around the new galaxy's center.

The upcoming merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda will not be the first time our galaxy collides with another. The Milky Way is thought to have swallowed at least a dozen galaxies over the past 12 billion years — including one collision called the Gaia sausage merger — adding the stolen stars to an ever-growing galactic gumbo, Live Science previously reported.