If Neptune’s orbit moves 0.1%, it could destabilize the entire solar system, study says

solar system. But don’t worry — it won’t happen in our lifetime, according to a recent study. Researchers at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, created simulations which observed how close a passing star would have to be in order to alter a planet in our solar system’s orbit and cause a chain reaction of changes, along with the chances of that happening.  "So just like the sun’s gravity can influence really distant objects like comets, right, so comets can be very far away from the sun, but they still orbit the sun because of the sun’s strong gravity.

A passing star can influence objects within the solar system. So our study was to set out trying to understand how sensitive the stability of the solar system would be to be influenced by passing stars," said Garett Brown, a Ph.D.

student at the University of Toronto and co-author of the study. FILE - This image of Neptune was taken by Voyager 2 less than five days before the probe's closest approach of the planet on Aug.

25, 1989, and shows the "Great Dark Spot" — a storm in Neptune's atmosphere — and the bright, light-blue smudge of cloud (NASA/JPL-Caltech)In this recent study, researchers created nearly 3,000 simulations showing what is the least amount of influence needed to potentially create huge changes in our own solar system.