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A new study published February 15 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society finds that the Andromeda galaxy is actually around the same size as our own galaxy. Scientists previously thought Andromeda was about two to three times the size of the Milky Way, and that it would one day swallow us up in a galactic smashup billions of years away. But researchers using a technique to measure “the speed required to escape a galaxy” have figured out why Andromeda is smaller than research has suggested, according to the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). This could seriously change the outcome of that eventual merger.

ZpgY4 TIL that a war was almost started because of a single tree.
nWkoB TIL when Rivers Cuomo, lead singer of Weezer, was attending Harvard, he was unrecognizable to most. He walked with a cane, had a thick beard, long hair, and thick glasses. Fans would walk by in Weezer shirts and not recognize him.
XEMGX TIL The sound made by the eruption of Krakatoa was so loud that if it was to happen in Ireland, it would sound like cannon fire in New York City.
WkZjN TIL The Uto-Aztecan language family, to which the ancient and modern Aztec languages belong, was historically so widespread beyond the Aztec Empire that the language family has speakers as far north as Idaho
d815j TIL: In 1918, Iowa Governor William F. Harding signed a proclamation banning all languages other than English for public conversation, education, speeches, or church services. Some churches had to close and people were fined for speaking German on the phone.