The solar system could fall apart much sooner: scientists have revised their forecast

The solar system could lose stability much earlier than scientists predicted. According to a new study by researchers at the California Institute of Technology, the outer planets could drift from their orbits approximately a billion years after the Sun becomes a white dwarf. Previously, scientists believed this process could take up to 100 billion years, writes Business Insider.

Astronomer Kostiantyn Batyhin and his team conducted 672 computer simulations and discovered a mechanism that had previously been underestimated. The scientists found that at the end of its life, the Sun will turn into a red giant and shed its outer envelope. Presumably, this process will occur not uniformly, but approximately in the form of 4,600 separate ejections. The mass of each such ejection will be about one ten-thousandth of the Sun's initial mass.

Each such ejection creates a recoil that slightly shifts the Sun. The typical speed of this shift is about seven meters per second, scientists believe.

The consequences, in their opinion, could be dramatic. In simulations that accounted for these ejections already at the stage of the Sun's transformation into a red giant, planetary orbits crossed in 37 out of 48 scenarios even before a white dwarf would have formed at all. In some scenarios, Saturn was completely ejected beyond the Solar System, in others Uranus and Neptune swapped places. Approximately three billion years after the formation of the white dwarf, in almost 90% of all modeled scenarios, the orbits became unstable.

The study was published in the professional journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters. As noted, it has certain limitations: the results depend to a significant extent on the mass of actual solar ejections.

If the mass of emissions is very small, then, according to simulations, over 98% of systems will remain stable forever. At present, however, it is impossible to prove whether the Sun will actually develop the necessary asymmetry during the shedding of its outer envelope. The parameters used in the study were obtained based on observations of other stars, the publication noted.

Other discoveries about the planets

UNIAN previously wrote that another dwarf planet may be hiding behind Pluto. The object was designated ED138, and its diameter, according to preliminary estimates, is between 600 and 1,500 kilometers. If further observations confirm the discovery, ED138 will join the group of five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Currently, it includes Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.

We also wrote that astronomers have discovered a planet with water and weather similar to Earth's. It was noted that the James Webb Space Telescope detected water clouds on the brown dwarf WISE 0855. This object is located 7.5 light-years from Earth. Observations showed that the clouds on it not only exist but also constantly change as the planet rotates, just like on Earth.