A passing star may ship planets scattering
Triff/Shutterstock
Stars whizzing by our solar system may trigger extra havoc than astronomers beforehand thought, from sending Pluto’s orbit haywire to forcing Mercury to fly into the solar – and even catastrophically altering Earth’s orbit and local weather. The total danger of these occasions is nonetheless low, however the larger affect of passing stars signifies that occasions like these is perhaps commonplace in different planetary methods.
While the orbits of the planets have been as soon as regarded as as predictable and unchanging as clockwork, trendy astronomers have discovered that on lengthy timescales, they’re…