"A very basic yet, from our perspective, easy to overlook quality of the Universe is that everything is in motion, all the time. Even things that have united humanity across the ages and that we take for granted - such as the constellations and our relatively pristine view of the Milky Way on clear nights far from light pollution - will evolve and rupture over the course of deep timescales."
"In this video from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the US astronomer and curator Jackie Faherty discusses how the contours of the night sky as we know it will dramatically alter millions of years in the future. Her words are paired with extraordinary data visualisations of these coming distortions, some drawn from the show Encounters in the Milky Way, playing at the museum's Hayden Planetarium."
Everything in the Universe is in motion, causing even long-standing sky patterns to shift. Constellations and the Milky Way will evolve and rupture across deep timescales, becoming unrecognizable far in the future. Stellar motions, galactic rotation, and gravitational interactions will rearrange star positions and alter the contours of the night sky. Data visualizations can project these coming distortions to illustrate specific future configurations. Familiar celestial patterns that have united humanity will transform as a consequence of ongoing cosmic dynamics, revealing a continuously changing sky rather than a fixed celestial map.
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