in truth science fiction has shown us some very weird scenarios from giant alien monsters with
high-tech invading the Earth to men having an Interstellar Empire involving thousands
of planets indeed man's imagination Knows No Limit among these wild array of thoughts one in
particular stands out in the form of a question could the Earth ever leave our solar system
before you answer that question by saying No it should be pointed out that there is a Chinese
fantasy short story called the wandering Earth that supports this notion the author Liu shashin
Paints the picture of Earth where the leaders work together to propel Earth out of the solar
system in order to avoid a solar flare that could not be deflected and would have decimated the
planet ending life as they know it welcome to fact nominal in today's video we will be
taking a look at the possibility of the Earth ever leaving our solar system and how could it happen
Matteo seriati an aerospace engineer and space systems engineering lecture at the
University of Glasgow in the UK in response to the question said it's very unlikely
however clarified that unlikely does not equate to Impossible and he offered
a theoretical method by which it might be accomplished in his words the Earth
could be moved away from its orbit through the action of a massive Interstellar object flying
through Interstellar space and coming into the solar system and passing close to the Earth
in this close encounter known as a flyby the earth and the object would exchange energy and
momentum and the Earth's orbit would be disrupted if the object were fast massive and close enough
it could project the earth into an escape orbit directed outside of the solar system
theoretically the Earth may be expelled from the solar system according to Timothy Davis
a senior lecturer in physics and astronomy at Cardiff University in the UK he also has his
own theory for how this would occur the planets as they exist right now are in stable orbits around
the Sun however if the sun were to have a close encounter with another star then the gravitational
interactions of these bodies could disturb these orbits and potentially cause earth to be ejected
from the solar system David noted such Stellar encounters are quite rare Davis further said
for instance we know that the star gliese 710 is expected to come quite close in astronomical terms
to the sun in and around a million years time but even this flyby is unlikely to perturb the
planets gravity plays a key in Davis's Theory as it is the driving force behind his whole statement
good old gravity that invisible force that keeps us grounded to the Earth and not floating into
Oblivion same force that keeps the Earth at a safe distance from the Sun and In Perpetual orbit yes
that gravity the Intriguing part of the force of gravity is how it can hold the Earth together at
one time and can be Force hurtling our blue home away from our solar system how you might ask well
the answer lies in the complexity of gravity as simple as this Force appears things can get a
little frisky when multiple objects with powerful gravitational forces come into play so let's start
with two simple objects a massive star and a tiny planet gravity isn't too temperamental here just
the large body acting reasonably on the smaller body once the smaller planet Earth is able to
find itself in a stable orbit around the star it can sit there for ages without moving out of orbit
it would continue its steady flow around the star undisturbed like a well-oiled machine ADD in the
third object with a significant Mass hence an immense gravitational pull and we have chaos
the challenge of attempting to anticipate the movement of three objects interacting
with one another through the force of gravity has been Infamous for Centuries with Scholastic
heavyweights throughout the ages attempting to come up with a solution but failing to do so
the problem is that when there are three items involved even the slightest deviation
or shift can result in significant changes in a startlingly short amount of time in other
words something that appears tranquil cool and collected at one point in time for example the
fact that the Earth has been orbiting the Sun peacefully for billions of years might suddenly
become catastrophically unstable at another point in time so far so good all is well
within our solar system and this is because the planets within our solar system are not
large enough to have such an effect on the Earth and the Sun but what if a star came hurtling by
currently the Earth is in space called the habitable zone around the Sun
the space is habitable because it is the perfect distance where the heat of the sun is not too hot
that water vaporizes and neither is it so far that the Earth's surface freezes over
why do we have to take note of this well if we have a situation where another star comes so close
that they are able to grant our planet a little bit of energy a slight gravitational pull by the
star on the Earth's mass we might feel the effect but in truth it would not ring so many alarm Bells
yet but suppose this pull remains constant and year after year like a persistent lover the star's
gravity continues to beckon onto our planet with enough time in that case the planet will
continue to gain energy and gradually momentum with enough momentum and energy the planet will
be yanked away from its orbit and flung far away from its current position so far so good
there has not been such An Occurrence like this since the Earth found its space beside our sun
this doesn't mean we are completely safe quite recently a group of astronomers did a research
project that was published in the pre-print journal at arcsif their focus was on simulating
scenarios that were similar to the effects of a passing star they considered various scenarios
that may Force Earth out of the habitable zone and put an end to Life as we know it including the
impact of stars of varying masses approaching from various directions and traveling at various speeds
They concluded that our general level of safety was proportional to the rate at which the other
star traveled through the sky for stars moving fast because of their speed there simply would
not be enough time to do anything that would damage the way the planets in our solar system
are arranged if the star is traveling at a speed that is at least as quickly as the Earth orbits
the Sun a little over 66 000 miles per hour then it must pass within Jupiter's orbit in
order for it to have a decent chance of knocking us out of our orbit otherwise its gravitational
attraction is inconsequential on the other hand Stars traveling at a slow speed would
create great chaos we would also have to take the star's mass and the angle of impact into account
we can easily conclude that the possibility of either scenario playing out is really Bleak if
possible the sure effect is the end of all Life as We Know It the sharp temperature change from such
a move would jeopardize our current ecosystem and there would be no one around to Mark the change
it's unlikely that the atmosphere would remain Earth's global climate is very delicate due to
a fine balance of radiation incoming from the Sun and energy dissipated to deep space if
this was to vary temperatures would immediately and dramatically change sediatsi said foreign
as for the planet itself it would float in the vastness of space for a while until it
is adopted by a star with a strong gravitational pull or sucked in by a
black hole so yes that is what would happen if the Earth could leave our solar system we hope
you enjoyed the video do you think there are other possible theories or are there
any similar questions you would want to be answered leave us a message in the comment
section as always thank you for watching fact nominal don't forget to like And subscribe