In one and a half million years, the inhabitants of the Earth will have the opportunity to cast an overly close look at one star. The sun-like dwarf Gliese 710 is currently 64 light years away. The phrase “at the moment” is not used here by chance. The fact is that even at the time of the discovery of this star in 1999, scientists found out that at a speed of about 52,000 kilometers per hour, it was moving straight … where? That's right, visit us.
All that we currently knew about the wandering star Gliese 710 is that its trajectory lies in close proximity to our solar system. However, a new study by Polish astronomers shows that the star will travel 77 light-days away. And this will be enough for its powerful gravity to be able to knock down the orbit of asteroids and comets in the Oort cloud, and send them straight in the direction of our Earth.
Astronomers from the Polish Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan report that the distance between Gliese 710 and the Earth at the closest point will be 5 times less than previous calculations showed. They came to such conclusions using data collected by the Gaia space observatory of the European Space Agency, which turned out to be five times more accurate than the instruments that were used in 1999. There is still an error of about 50 percent, but calculations show that the star can approach us by 7250 astronomical units, or 0.11 light years, or 40 light days.
Gliese 710 (center of image) says hello
The Oort cloud, in turn, is 0.8-3.16 light years from the Sun and contains millions of asteroids, comets and other dangerous objects that Gliese 710 can affect. Researchers believe that the star can actually pull behind it 0.1 percent, or about 100 million Oort cloud objects. Many of these attracted objects could go straight into the inner solar system, accompanied by prolonged meteor showers and increased activity of new comets each year over the next several million years.
Some scientists believe that a similar event already took place about 65 million years ago, not particularly well for the dinosaurs living on Earth at that time. However, in comparison with Gliese 710, the events of the past are not even close in scale. At the moment of closest approach to the solar system, Gliese 710 in the sky will look like the brightest and fastest moving object, "entailing irreversible changes in the further history of the future solar system," scientists write.
Promotional video:
As mentioned above, before these events we are separated by more than one million years, and during this time anything can happen. Nevertheless, our great-grandchildren, after 40,000 generations, will most likely be grateful if we have already begun to think about repelling cosmic threats.
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK