Do you believe that the universe is "playing" the game of touching glass balls? Spheres are stars and planets, and in the process of playing, the universe will cause various "glass balls" to collide.
I think it's nonsense, but at the moment a glass ball is approaching where we are. If you think this is likely to be true, the next thing to think about is whether there is a probability that the two glass balls will collide.
The "glass ball" that approached 1.4 million years later
This "glass ball" is Gliese 710, which has long been discovered by the astronomical community, and is now 63.8 light-years away. There are also other data showing that this distance has been reduced to 62 light-years.
Compared to the sun, it is a larger glass sphere, about 60% more mass than the former. Astronomers are concerned about its distance, and then about the potential impact that it might have if it is too large.
All this is because the orbit of Gliese 710 seems to have the possibility of intersecting and overlapping with the sun. That is, in their current state, the two spheres are moving closer to each other, and although the distance is still quite far away in astronomical units, the process of approaching each other seems to be irreversible.
This phenomenon was previously discovered by researchers from Russian scientists. By analyzing the star's orbital data, they came to the conclusion that the two could collide.
Stars are the largest beings in the universe that represent living and life, and black holes may have a greater sphere of influence, but it represents the part of the star that dies.
In this way, all living stars, as if they have "consciousness", do not rampage through the universe, but follow their respective trajectories under the action of gravity. For the current length of human civilization, we have not yet witnessed the process of stars scurrying around in the universe.
So, when Gliese 710 flies head-on, it will theoretically change the orbit of itself and the Sun under the influence of gravity. Since its mass is greater than that of the Sun, it is on the active side in terms of influence.
In addition, there is a group of "little brothers" such as planets, and it is still unknown whether Gliese 710 is coming, whether it carries a little brother, or whether it is absorbing other little brothers due to the effect of gravity on the way here.
But as long as it is close to the Sun's sphere of influence, gravity will definitely be the first thing to change. Because of the confusion in gravity, there will also be chaos in the surrounding planets. If the force is too great, it will even change the orbits of all planets.
That sounds like a pretty bad situation, and the researchers estimate that it won't be until at least 1.4 million years before the star enters the Sun's sphere of influence. Moreover, the two are not fully in contact, and there will be a distance of 0.065 light years in between.
On Earth's scale, this distance is still a long way off, and between the stars of the universe, such a close distance can exert influence on each other. What will happen at that time, we really can't imagine it now.
For scientists, the discovery seems to prove that stars do collide with each other within the universe. Something like this can happen in the past, in the future, or in the present that is invisible to the human eye.
Moreover, analysis of previous data also shows that 2.8 million years ago, there seems to have been another star that entered the sphere of influence of the solar system, and the distance is only 0.2 light-years.
Could it be that the mythical shooting of the sun was really manipulated by Hou Yi? Perhaps the so-called ancient myth records the process of close contact between the stars.
But again, from the perspective of the time span, this seems unlikely. Because of the close contact between stars, their subsequent effects are more than a million years in time. With such a long span of time, is there really a civilization that can see and take some kind of action in the whole process?
This brings us to the question of whether stars will collide at all, and how likely they are.
The volume and density of the star
More than 100,000 light-years, this is the estimated diameter of the Milky Way. Within its controllable range, at least more than 300 billion or even more than 400 billion stars are orbiting in circles around the core of the Milky Way.
When we were children, we all heard the nursery rhyme that the moon revolves around the earth, and the earth runs around the sun with the moon. On a larger scale, the Sun is running around the Milky Way with its "little brothers".
From the scale of the earth, so many stars plus countless planets are clustered in the Milky Way, and there will definitely be a possibility of collision.
However, the space of the universe is larger than the scale of our cognition. The size of the star, combined with the distance between the stars, gives an idea of how dense the star is.
If we take the sun as a reference, the diameter of 1.4 million kilometers sounds very big. However, with the Sun as the center, the nearest star to us, Proxima Centauri, is also 4.2 light-years away. For the sake of calculation, let's take an integer and say that it is 5 light years.
One light-year is converted into kilometers, which is about 9.46 trillion kilometers, and for the sake of calculation, it is said to be 10 trillion kilometers. In this way, it can be seen that Proxima Centauri to the Sun is about 50 trillion kilometers.
Looking back at the diameter of the sun, 1.4 million is negligible in front of 50 trillion. One might say that the Sun is not that big and that there are even bigger stars in the universe.
It is indeed a larger, known large Shield UY, whose radius is estimated to be 1,700 times larger than that of the Sun. This volume is indeed very large, but in front of 50 trillion, it is not worth mentioning in an instant.
At this time, the spatial scale between the Sun and Proxima Centauri is reduced to the size of the Earth, and the Sun and Proxima Centauri are also scaled down, and their volume is equivalent to two grains of millet. These two grains of millet are at opposite ends of the earth, and then let them move separately, do you think they will collide?
Of course, from the perspective of the galaxy as a whole, the closer to the center, the higher the density of stars. According to astronomical estimates, the density of stars near the central region of the Milky Way is 200,000 times higher than that of the former region compared to the marginal position of the Sun.
As the number increases, so does the probability of a collision. But even so, the volume of these stars relative to the space of the region in which they are located is like a few grains of millet in a train station. How likely do you think there will be a few grains of millet colliding in a space area the size of a train station?
Therefore, judging from the spatial scale and volume alone, the possibility of collision is indeed unlikely. However, some people may say that if you take into account the speed of the star, if the speed of a star is very fast, it will definitely collide with other celestial bodies as it moves in the universe.
The velocity of the star
When we were children, we all thought that stars didn't move, but when we grew up, we knew more about it, and we realized that stars are also moving. The sun is also orbiting the Milky Way, and although it takes 220 million years to make each revolution, it is still rotating.
The sun travels 217 kilometers per second, and at its speed, it takes 1,400 years to travel a distance of 1 light-year. The sun moves slowly, and there are stars in the universe that run faster than it.
Researchers at Harvard University published a new study in June 2023 in which they discovered that a fast-moving star in the Milky Way galaxy can travel 2,285 kilometers per second. In addition, the other 3 stars located next to this star are traveling at speeds of more than 1,000 kilometers per second.
However, previous studies have shown that the closer you get to the center of the Milky Way, the faster the star will move due to the increased gravitational pull.
A 2020 study by the University of Cologne found that the S2 star traveled at a speed of 9,000 kilometers per second. And the closer you get to the core, there are stars with a speed of more than 20,000 kilometers per second, and even 24,000 kilometers per second.
Therefore, purely from the perspective of speed, these high-speed stars are indeed more likely to collide with nearby stars than the Sun.
However, this is only a probability, and it is equally unclear whether it will happen. Because from the overall point of view, the faster the star, the other stars around it also move faster, they are moving in their respective orbits at the same velocity, and the possibility of collision is still not very large.
There is only one case, that is, the stars are not all moving in the same direction at the same level, and the orbits are staggered with each other, as long as the time is stretched long enough, the probability of collision will definitely increase.
However, from the perspective of human timescale, even if there is such a possibility in the future, this probability time is still at the level of the world.
So in the final analysis, the unimaginably large space, the long enough time to suffocate, even if there is a collision, has nothing to do with us at the moment.
Is it okay to hitchhike
From the point of view of the possibility of stars colliding, if the stars have a chance to move closer to each other, can we take advantage of this property of stars?
To put it simply, when a star is close enough to us, we can enter the star system using spacecraft technology and the star's own gravity.
Then, the planets in the star system can be used as relay stations, which can be developed to create a suitable living environment. And in the process, the star continues to orbit.
When it comes into contact with another star the next time, we can do the same and enter another star system. And so on, stars are like "cars" that can carry us farther away.
In this way, it is much more convenient than human beings to build spacecraft. But a key premise is that the star must be close and able to use it.
In addition, the speed of the stars is also inconsistent, some are as slow as the sun, others are very fast, and the situation is also very different.
But it is obvious that if the future human race really develops the technology that can hitchhike on the stars, all kinds of problems and difficulties that can be thought of may be solved.
In that case, the stars become vehicles that we can use to travel to any corner of the galaxy.
epilogue
For us, however, everything is still imaginary. Not to mention hitchhiking on the stars, even the ability to get out of the solar system is not yet available.
Therefore, not to mention that the stars will collide, we still don't know whether other stars will approach the sun. Now sit on the ground and travel for the day, and in the future hitchhike with the stars, as for the collision, it is like a "car accident" in space.
Of course, we always wonder who is behind this system? Will the stellar car that is as big as the sky and the earth in our eyes be the glass ball in our eyes?
Resources:
"The fastest star "soars" 2,285 kilometers per second" Science and Technology Daily June 16, 2023
"The Fastest Emergence of a Star Orbiting a Black Hole So Far," Science and Technology Daily, August 18, 2020