Galactic Tidal Tails - more evidence it's an old Universe !!

This is interesting! The simulations extend the motions of galaxies in the local group back in time, and amongst other things attempt to infer an approximate age for the universe, based on the time when all the galaxies were together. The ages obtained are around 17 to 18 billion years. This is substantially larger than most currently accepted estimates (13.7 billion years) but it is in the ball park given the problems with this kind of modeling.The time step of the simulations is 80 million years; this gives an idea of the time scales on which galactic interactions occur. I don't think there is anything useful to be gained by plotting motions all the way back 17 billion years, because by that stage you need to worry about a lot more than the local group; and also the formation of galaxies themselves, which is a mostly unsolved problem (as I understand the matter).But it is very interesting all the same. Thanks.Cheers -- Sylas

Thanks for the links they were very informative."An interesting fact on the timing is that the Sun will still be burning brightly when this collision occurs and maybe life of some sort will still be around on Earth at that time. So what would people see in the night sky during this billion year galactic dance? "Now this is a very interesting quote. He apperently isnt sure that earth will survive humans or something like that. Does evolution predict also that in the near future civilization on this planet as we know it will cease to exist? What do you think of this.

I've responded in Message 1 since we have now strayed from tidal tails.