The Milkomeda Merger

The Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies are on a collision course; they're set to collide in about 4 billion years, after which, the two originally spiral-shaped galaxies are going to transmute into a single elliptical galaxy. The purpose of this project is to create a 3D model of the Milkomeda merger by using and modifying a galaxy merger code available on the Astrophysics Source Code Library. The code uses a restricted 3-body approach to model the morphology of actual interacting galaxies. The data will be displayed at UIC's Electronic Visualization Laboratory at CAVE2 where, with the aid of specially engineered glasses, viewers will find themselves amidst a galaxy merger visible from multiple perspectives.