date of publication:
July 11, 2022 14:18 GMT
Update date: July 11, 2022 14:35 GMT
The passing of a neighboring star could completely disrupt our solar system, but not at the moment.
Canadian researchers ran nearly 3,000 simulations to note that this event could modify Neptune’s orbit by 0.1%, which would be enough to drive planets out of the solar system, or cause them to collide.
Yet this kind of phenomenon only happens once every 100 billion years or so.
And according to a report published by trustmyscience, within the solar system, any change in the course of the planets could have clear repercussions for its evolution.
Since Newton formulated his universal law of gravitation, the long-term stability of our system has been a concern for astronomers for centuries, the report said. However, the structure and evolution of planetary systems is shaped in part by stellar flyby, even if its influence is minimal.
In this context, scientists Garrett Brown and Hanno Ren of the University of Toronto are interested in shocks to nearby nearby stars that are too weak to destabilize the solar system immediately but strong enough to measurably disrupt the state of the solar system’s dynamics.
The researchers asked: If a star approaches a few billion kilometers from our solar system, what paths of the planets will be modified?
2,880 simulations of stellar orbits and their effects after 4.8 billion years
In total, Canadian researchers conducted 2,880 simulations of stellar flybys near the solar system. The results of their experiments were published on the arXiv platform before publication. Depending on the mass and distance of the star tested, the intensity of disturbances on the system varied, continuing until 4.8 billion years later.
In fact, some simulations were stopped before they finished when a planet was destroyed or expelled from the solar system. Therefore, it is possible that other disturbances will occur after this date.
“We perform long-term integration processes and show that even small perturbations from stellar flybys can affect the stability of planetary systems during their lifetimes,” the researchers wrote.
“We note that small perturbations in the orbits of the outer planets are transmitted between planets, which increases the potential for destabilization of the inner planetary system,” the researchers added.
“Our results around the solar system show that relative perturbations in the semi-major axis of Neptune (the outermost planet in the solar system) on the order of 0.1% are strong enough to increase the potential for destabilization of the solar system,” the researchers said. The distance between the sun and the earth.
Most of the simulations created planetary collisions
Of the 2,880 simulations run, 1,920 caused potential and measurable instability, and 960 created perturbations too weak to measure.
Among the possible simulations, most resulted in collisions between Mercury and Venus – closest to the Sun – and 26 of the simulations ended up causing chaos in the system.
Some simulations showed that Uranus, Neptune or Mercury was expelled from the solar system, and one experiment caused a collision between Earth and Mars.