Sina technology news? On June 12, Beijing time, according to the report of American Space Network, a new study published in the authoritative British science magazine Nature said that the computer simulation results showed that after several billion years, the chaotic orbits of planets may lead to the collision of the Earth with Mercury, Mars or Venus.
Realistic version of "Mars hits the earth"
Although mercury is small, it poses the greatest threat to our solar system. Computer simulation results show that there is a 1% possibility that the orbit of mercury will extend to a dangerous area, where the orbit of mercury around the sun will overlap the orbit of Venus. Researchers have found that there will be planetary chaos, and Mercury may be "expelled" from the solar system or collide with the sun or neighboring planets similar to the Earth.
However, this potential planetary collision is still far away from us. The research results were published in the latest issue of Nature. Gregory Rablin of the University of California, Santa Cruz (Gregory? Labrin) said, "I compare the result of this study to a bottle. 99% of the space in this bottle is full, and only 1% is empty. Although planetary collisions may be staged in the next few billion years, this possibility is actually very small. " Labrin did not participate in this research, but wrote an analytical article published in the same issue of Nature.
The research was conducted by Jacques Laska, a researcher at the Paris Observatory. Laskar) and Michael Stiene (Mickael? Gastineau), they realized a computer simulation involving 25,065,438+0 different planetary orbit scenarios. Although most of them will not collide, there are still 25 simulations that lead to the chaos of Mercury's orbit. The simulation results show that even if mercury collides with the sun or Venus due to the increase of orbital angle, the other planets in the solar system will not be greatly affected.
Mercury's planetary collision fuse
However, in some unlikely scenarios, the change of Mercury's orbit will lead to the total chaos of the solar system (the region where terrestrial planets are located) in about 3.3 billion years, which may lead to the collision of Mercury, Venus or Mars with the Earth. Laska said in a telephone interview: "The most surprising result is that the orbits of the Earth and Venus are unstable." If this scene really happens, there will be a realistic version of "Venus Hit the Earth".
Laska said: "First of all, Mercury may fall into chaos due to its gravitational interaction with Jupiter. This may make the orbit of Venus unstable and bring it closer and closer to the Earth. By that time, Venus's orbit began to appear chaotic and collided with the Earth. "When researchers analyzed different situations involving Mars approaching the Earth's orbit, they found that there were five situations that might cause Mars to be thrown out of the solar system. Among the nearly 200 simulation results involved in the above hypothesis, two celestial bodies will collide, 48 of which involve the earth.
Although the earth's orbit seems to be stable today, it has not been so in history. Planetary orbits have been changing for billions of years. Planets can basically disturb each other's orbits through gravitational interaction. Astronomers say that in the distant past, some planets in the solar system may run in completely different orbits and move to their present positions step by step. As the sun gets older, it will expand and lose its mass.
Previous research results show that this change of the sun will have a major impact on the planet in the next 7 billion years or so. If this happens one day, the earth may be evaporated, or with the help of the gravity of past stars, it will be free from the bondage of the solar system.
The most powerful evidence of the stability of the solar system
200 1, a study conducted by Labrin and Fred Adam Adams, a scientist at the University of Michigan who was still working for NASA at that time, showed that the possibility of the earth being thrown out of the solar system was one in 100,000. At the same time, as planets keep moving, "close contact" (especially celestial bodies as big as Jupiter) will throw them into new orbits. Evidence of this confusion has been found in exoplanet systems. For example, in one of the exoplanets, the celestial body numbered 2M 1207B may have been formed by the collision of two planets. Scientists speculate that the moon was formed after a Mars-sized object hit the earth 4 billion years ago.
The latest simulation results provide the strongest evidence about the future state of the solar system so far. In an interview with Space Network, Rablin said: "These simulations truly answered the question of the long-term stability of the solar system with authoritative evidence for the first time." This is because the computer simulation of Lascases and Stiene relies on non-average equations (non-average? Equation), taking into account the influence of general relativity. Previous simulations were based on the average equation of planetary motion, without considering the influence of general relativity. When it is used to simulate a planet that is about to collide, such an equation is invalid and cannot be accurately evaluated.
Therefore, the influence of general relativity or gravity on time and space does play a role in the planetary collision hypothesis. Rablin said: "Mercury's orbit is slightly elliptical. The sun is at the focal length of one of the ellipses, not at the center of the ellipse. For a long time, such as about 654.38+ million years, the orientation of Mercury's orbit will rotate like a clock hand. General relativity will accelerate this clock-like rotation, which will reduce the chances that Saturn will drive major changes in the orbit of Mercury. "