Jan 132017
 

The clickbaity headline:

Star on collision course with solar system to bring MILLIONS of asteroids towards Earth

The less clickbaity details: the star in question, Gliese 710, is currently 64 lightyears away and won;t make its closest approach for another 1.35 million years. But here’s the interesting bit: closest approach will be 77 light *days,* with a possibility of 38 light days. The authors estimate that the passage of Gliese 710 through the Oort cloud will send a shower of comets into the inner solar system at a rate of about ten per year over a span of about 3 to 4 million years.

Sounds like it’ll be a hell of a show. Pity about the wait.

 Posted by at 1:07 am