Table of Contents
- 1 What danger is posed by other stars passing in our solar system?
- 2 What happens if we have two suns in our solar system?
- 3 What is the nearest planet to Earth today?
- 4 What happens when a star comes close to our Solar System?
- 5 Could a star pass through the universe without hitting anything?
- 6 What if a star larger than our Sun entered the Oort cloud?
What danger is posed by other stars passing in our solar system?
Far beyond the known planets lies a vast collection of icy debris and comets surrounding the Sun known as the Oort Cloud. A star passing even a light-year or so away from us could stir these up, hurling cosmic missiles at the planets.
What happens if we have two suns in our solar system?
No sunscreen would prevent you from getting toasted by two suns. The Earth’s orbit could be stable if the planet rotated around the two stars. The stars would have to be close together, and the Earth’s orbit would be further away. This would keep the planet warm enough to sustain life.
Are there planets without stars?
Over the last 20 years, astronomers have found fewer than two dozen planets without stars in our galaxy. Most are big balls of gas that are more like Jupiter than Earth. But scientists think these worlds are the tip of an enormous iceberg.
What is the nearest planet to Earth today?
It’s Mercury! Of all the planets in the Solar System, Mercury has the smallest orbit. So although it never gets quite as close to the Earth as Venus or Mars, it never gets far away from us also! In fact, Mercury is the closest – for most of the time- planet not only to the Earth, but also to Mars and Venus and…
What happens when a star comes close to our Solar System?
But sometimes neighboring stars do come close to our solar system, and when they get too close, it’s nasty. As a star nears the solar system, it can start to change the orbit of the Earth. When the Earth and the interloper are near, our planet can get a little bit of energy, a gentle gravitational tug-of-the-leash from the foreign visitor.
Will a nearby star ever come close to Earth?
There’s a 90 percent chance that a nearby star will be approaching Earth within the next half million years. Known as Hipparcos 85605, the stellar dwarf is currently 16 light years away from us, and it could come as close as 0.13 light years away.
Could a star pass through the universe without hitting anything?
It is entirely possible that the star could pass through without hitting anything. There is a lot of empty space in the solar system. But certainly some things, including planets, will fall into one of the stars. Additionally, both stars’ course through the galaxy would be altered.
What if a star larger than our Sun entered the Oort cloud?
If a star larger than our Sun entered the Oort cloud, it would disrupt the orbital cycle for every planet it passed. Since there are such large distances within the Solar System, this disruption would happen over the span of millions of years. It would be an almost slow-motion chaos of debris waves.