Is the Andromeda Galaxy heading for us?

Question

how long will it take?

would it get side tracked first?

Answer 1

The Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy are predicted to collide in about 5 billion years.  By then, our Sun will be entering its red giant phase, and Earth will either be swallowed up by the Sun or orbiting so close that it resembles modern-day Mercury.

There's no way to divert or sidetrack a galaxy as it hurtles through the cosmos unless you happen to be God.  Galaxies are immense systems of hundreds of billions of stars and nebulae, almost always with a supermassive black hole at the center.  So if the calculations hold, Andromeda's collision with the Milky Way is inevitable, but so far into the future that you shouldn't raid your IRA.