The risk of a star destroying the solar system is much higher than expected

Stars that pass near the solar system can dislodge the planets by throwing them at the sun or to space. A new study reveals that the risk of this happens is much greater than what was thought.

A study recently in arXiv revealed that the stars that pass ‘rasar’ the solar system can cause more damage than astronomers thought before, since violently throw the earth against the sun or discharge the orbit and climate of our planet.

As it writes, it is difficult to know exactly what will happen to the Solar System in the next thousands of millions of years, with some simulations show that they can disintegrate.

The most likely way this happens is whether the orbit of Mercury, for luck, align with that of Jupiter. This could cause the smallest planet to move away, shocking the sun or venus, or placing the earth and Mars on a collision route. Another source of disorder could come from stars that passed near the sun, at a width of some solar systems, but these events are extremely unlikely, with only 1% of hypotheses in every 1 billion years.

Now the new study has found that it is not just events like these that can disturb the balance of our system.

O Daily Star Traffic It can happen at any time and can significantly unbalances the solar system.

The team found that the overall probability of a solar system planet being diverted from its route was 50% higher than the resulting only from inner chaos.

“Instability caused by a shallow flight can happen at any time, while internally caused instability is much more likely to happen 4 to 5 billion years in the future, which makes rasant flights the biggest threat to the stability of the solar system over the next 4 billion years,” he told New Scientist, Sean Raymondfrom the University of Bordeaux, in France.

Most vulnerable Pluto

The most surprising potential victim of the star intruders was Pluto. It has 5% hypothesis of becoming unstable. “In no previous study it was thought that Pluto had any chance of becoming unstable,” said Raymond.

The absolute risks of Mars, Venus, and Earth were launched into chaotic orbit increased to 0.3, 0.2 and 0.05% – higher than previous estimates, although the absolute risk remains small.

Earth orbit also has 0.3% hypothesis of being altered to cause significant climate warming.

“The diversity of ways in which the solar system can fall apart is much larger than previously thought,” Raymond said.

Globally, according to the study, the probability of a star disturbing the balance of our solar system in the next thousands of millions of years increased to about 1.5%instead of 1%.

Still, researchers reassure us: when compared to other planetary systems, the risk of such an event is still low.