The solar system could collapse because of a passing star, scientists predict

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Scientists have warned that if a passing star moves Neptune’s orbit by just 0.1 per cent, the resulting chaos could cause the other planets in our solar system to collide. Mercury could be pulled out of its orbit and either shoot out of the Solar System or head on a collision course with Venus, the Sun, or the Earth. For planetary systems that form in a star cluster, the consensus is that stellar flybys play an important role while the planetary system remains within the star cluster”, Garett Brown, a graduate student of computational physics from the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto, told Universe Today. After the star cluster dissipates the occurrence rate of stellar flybys dramatically decreases, reducing their role in the evolution of planetary systems.” Moreover, considering that the Sun is likely to expand and engulf the planet in five billion years, the likelihood that this will disrupt our experience in the Solar System is “not an issue we need to worry about,” said Brown.