Attack of the killer planets! - June 11, 2009
Pack your bags and head for the hills. The end is near. That's what you might be led to believe if you read one of the many reports out today about a paper in Nature. A duo of French researchers has modeled the future of the solar system. They've shown that chaotic gravitational perturbations could lead Mercury to swing out of its normal orbit, and that in turn could cause Venus or Mars to smash into the Earth.
"Could" is the operative word here: the chances of it actually happening stand at well under 1%. There's no way to improve the odds because of the chaotic nature of the model, but whatever the outcome, don't panic. Any collision that might occur will happen over three billion years from now.
You can listen to an interview with one of the authors, Jacques Laskar, on this week's Nature Podcast.
Image: IMCCE-CNRS
