One of the really cool things that are possible with modern star catalogs is our ability to see not just where stars are now, but also where they are headed. With knowledge of both where stars are and where they are going, we can begin to run models that describe how stars will interact as they orbit for the next few millions of years.

And one star, Gliese 710, is headed our way.

1.29 million years from now it will pass within 0.06 light-years or 4000 AU of our Sun. As a reminder, our galaxy reaches out to 100,000 AU, which means this star will enter our solar system, and its gravity will disrupt the outermost solar system as it passes through the Oort Cloud.

The Oort cloud is full of icy objects — the stuff that comets are made of often originates from right where Gliese 710 is going to pass. Models suggest that this star in the Oort cloud scenario will send countless comets hurtling in toward the inner solar system, where we live.

This is not good. Researcher E.A. Milne puts it this way in Newsweek: We have Jupiter which will hoover up many of these, much like it did in 1994 when it hoovered up Comet Shoemaker/Levy before it could come any closer to us, but the sheer numbers are such that if anything astrophysical has the potential to utterly destroy our biosphere, it will be one of these millions of comets which will be coming our way in only one million years’ time!

In trying to find the original research paper associated with this story – which we had brought to us by one of our awesome audience members – we discovered this story dates back at least to 2016 when it was published by Berski & Dybczynski, with refined data coming out with each update of the Gaia star catalogs. With the original research predating this show, we missed it when it broke but will be continuing to follow it in the years to come.

More Information

Roaming Star Could Rain Millions of Comets Down on Earth in Future Doomsday (Newsweek)

“Gliese 710 will pass the Sun even closer,” Filip Berski and Piotr A. Dybczyński, 2016 November 15, Astronomy & Astrophysics