I read a captivating article about "zombie galaxies" this morning in bed. It really gave me some insight into the life of a galaxy. Check it out if you've got time: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530044.300-galactic-zombies-roam-the-cosmos-and-refuse-to-die.html#.VLlaGUfF9KI
My reading (and curiosity) also took me to the Wikipedia page on the Andromeda-Milky Way collision. Apparently scheduled to take place in approximately 4 billion years, our galaxy is supposed to bump into our well-known neighbor, Andromeda, resulting in a melding of our two galaxies. The new galaxy ('shipped as Milkdromeda) would look vastly different than the two before it, though individual solar systems would be relatively undisturbed (that's a relief, provided we're still around in 4 billion years). What amazes me the most is that - even though the space between stars in each galaxy is so great that, when the galaxies collide, there is such an minuscule chance that any two solar systems will get close enough to have an effect on each other - these two galaxies, which are also an unfathomable distance apart, manage to find each other despite the vast emptiness of the universe.
It's a small universe after all.
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