Solar system's planets could spin out of control

Newscientis.com Source link : Solar system's planets could spin out of control

THE solar system's clockwork motion is by no means guaranteed: one day the Earth could collide with Venus or tear Mars apart in a close encounter, a new simulation has shown.

We know that the apparently reliable orbits of the planets are unstable in the long run, because their weak gravitational effects on one another can add up in unpredictable ways. Technically, the system is chaotic. Could this very mild chaos lead to disaster?

There are so many theories as to how life on earth will cease to exist, yet ones like this one have no solution. Climate change among many other things may just aswell be the status quo for the planet, but collisions with other orbiting bodies is not.

I love the fact that they call space chaotic. It is and in our lifetimes we will only understand a molecule of the information that space holds for us. Maybe one day our distant relatives will have an understanding better than we do. Lets hope that this is one of those distant theories that though the possibility is there on paper, in reality it is miniscule at best.

reply to post by LeaderOfProgress


Science is a bit like insanity. At first an idea is laughable, over time it grows and before you know it you have convinced yourself ,using a piece of paper, that it is the new sanity that everyone else must accept. Eventually your paper ends up in a bin then someone has an idea that is laughable, "Why dont we call it.....science?"

Bin please.



[edit on 12-6-2009 by XXXN3O]

reply to post by LeaderOfProgress
I posted a jokey satire version of the story in skunkworks, but it failed miserably I subscribe to NS and now and then it appears they are just filling a page or two with bluff 'possibilities.' It's only half a magazine anyway! The planets colliding in millions of years is 'possible' in the sense that the Great Pyramid is 'possibly' an ancient alien missile silo. The idea is like a blindfolded discus thrower trying to hit a clay pigeon. Possible? Maybe.....