The Solar System is stable in human terms, and far beyond, given that it is unlikely any of the planets will collide with each other or be ejected from the system in the next few billion years, and that Earth's orbit will be relatively stable.
The phenomenon that the planets do not fall into the sun, because it is controlled by the gravitational pull of the sun and the sideways force or closed trajectory of the planets.
The gravity of the Sun keeps the planets in their orbits. They stay in their orbits because there is no other force in the Solar System which can stop them.
New supercomputer simulations predict that, in 3 billion to 4 billion years, there is a slight chance that Venus or Mars will slam into our planet thanks to the subtle gravitational interactions between Jupiter and Mercury.
China's historic mission to new space station
But it's not all bad news: Mars and the outer gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are expected to survive the sun's burning-out. And now the detection of the distant planet orbiting a white dwarf strengthens that idea.
Just as our planet existed for over 4 billion years before humans appeared, it will last for another 4 billion to 5 billion years, long after it becomes uninhabitable for humans.
Life on Earth is not possible without the light and heat from the Sun. So when the Sun dies, that's bad news. Luckily for us, it won't happen until a few billion years from now.
Now, the good news: there's only about a 1% chance that Mercury will go crazy before the Sun bloats into a red giant billions of years from now. "If you're an optimist," says Laughlin, "then you say the glass is 99 percent full."
Scientists say it's highly unlikely. While large-scale collisions were prevalent when our solar system was young, it would be extremely rare for one to occur in a stable and established system like our own.
The results at high-speed collisions are predictable to an extent. If the collision happens head-on, it is given that both planets will destroy each other, with all their gas envelopes destroyed and the debris of their solid cores flung into the vacuum of the cosmos.
Overall, the Earth isn't even spiraling in toward the Sun; it's spiraling outward, away from it. So are all the planets of the Solar System. With every year that goes by, we find ourselves just slightly — 1.5 centimeters, or 0.00000000001% the Earth-Sun distance — farther away from the Sun than the year before.
"Jupiter is called a failed star because it is made of the same elements (hydrogen and helium) as is the Sun, but it is not massive enough to have the internal pressure and temperature necessary to cause hydrogen to fuse to helium, the energy source that powers the sun and most other stars.
Gravity on Earth
The sun's gravity keeps Earth in orbit around it, keeping us at a comfortable distance to enjoy the sun's light and warmth. It holds down our atmosphere and the air we need to breathe. Gravity is what holds our world together.
Did you know that Earth reaches its closest point to the Sun about two weeks after the December solstice? It happens on January 4, 2023!
Everything in the galaxy orbits the center of the combined mass of the entire galaxy and not the supermassive black hole that happens to be at the center. This image shows an artistic depiction of our galaxy.
NASA scientists have identified a planet like Earth
Named TOI 700 e, this new planet orbits within its star's habitable zone, which also hints at the presence of water on its surface.
Based on those two methods, researchers estimate that an asteroid or comet 1 kilometer wide or larger hits the planet every 600,000 to 700,000 years.
Tough Place for Life
It is unlikely that life as we know it could survive on Mercury due to solar radiation, and extreme temperatures.
Mercury will be swallowed by the Sun during its first red giant phase. Venus may survive the first phase, but will be consumed during the second giant phase. In all but the direst scenarios, Mars will survive the Sun's final stages of evolution.
Mercury's environment is not conducive to life as we know it. The temperatures and solar radiation that characterize this planet are most likely too extreme for organisms to adapt to.
With no sunlight, photosynthesis would stop, but that would only kill some of the plants—there are some larger trees that can survive for decades without it. Within a few days, however, the temperatures would begin to drop, and any humans left on the planet's surface would die soon after.
It is the pull of the Moon's gravity on the Earth that holds our planet in place. Without the Moon stabilising our tilt, it is possible that the Earth's tilt could vary wildly. It would move from no tilt (which means no seasons) to a large tilt (which means extreme weather and even ice ages).
Scientists are still debating whether or not our planet will be engulfed, or whether it will orbit dangerously close to the red giant sun. Either way, life as we know it on Earth will cease to exist. In fact, surface life on our planet will likely be wiped out long before the sun turns into a red giant.