Scientists Simulate , the Catastrophic Consequences, of a Stellar Fly-By.<br />A recent study from the University of Toronto <br />investigated what would happen if a wayward star <br />happened to fly a little too close to our solar system.<br />Scientists Garett Brown and Hanno Rein's project shines <br />a light on the potentially devastating effects of minor <br />shifts in the orbits of our neighboring planets.<br />The team ran nearly, 3,000 simulations , of a potential stellar fly-by.<br />The simulation helped the team <br />examine the subsequent effects of such <br />an event up to 4.8 billion years later.<br />According to the results, <br />just a 0.1% shift in Neptune's orbit could plunge <br />the whole solar system into complete chaos.<br />The Byte reports that , 960 of the 3,000 simulations , resulted in insignificant changes.<br />These weak perturbations don’t destroy the solar system immediately, they just wiggle it around a little bit, and over the next millions or billions of years something goes unstable, Hanno Rein, Scientist at the University of Toronto, via The Byte.<br />That means that the catastrophic collapse <br />of the solar system is a process that could <br />take billions of years to reach a conclusion. .<br />According to researchers, an event of this <br />magnitude only occurs in our corner of the <br />universe about once every 100 billion years. .<br />The Byte suggests that while this might <br />sound like a terrifying possibility, <br />it is unlikely to occur any time soon.
