3 ms·

Reminds me of this recent work suggesting at some point our solar system might just fall apart ‘suddenly’: https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-math-shows-when-

• rcthompson 3y ago
  It seems weird to me that so many of the "falling apart" simulations described in the intro involve planets crashing into each other. I would expect direct collisions to be an extremely rare "failure mode", even once the system destabilizes, especially for the much smaller inner planets. Much more common, I imagine, would be near misses that fling one or both planets into the sun, out of the system, out of the orbital plane, into extreme elliptical orbits, etc.
  • moomin 3y ago
    The thing is, there’s a fair bit of evidence around the solar system that planet and moon smashing events have happened, more than once.