Earth Could Collide With Other Planets

Everybody put on your helmet; Smivs writes "Astronomers calculate there is a tiny chance that Mars or Venus could collide with Earth — though it would not happen for at least a billion years. The finding comes from simulations to show how orbits of planets might evolve billions of years into the future. But the calculated chances of such events occurring are tiny. Writing in the journal Nature, a team led by Jacques Laskar shows there is also a chance Mercury could strike Venus and merge into a larger planet. Professor Laskar of the Paris Observatory and his colleagues also report that Mars might experience a close encounter with Jupiter — whose massive gravity could hurl the Red Planet out of our Solar System."

Comments

Re:Or earth could turn into an elephant

[Spazztastic]

There are tiny odds of just about anything happening, why is it news?

Yeah, and we can't even use the excuse that it was a posting by kdawson. Come on, Taco!

This new science is getting scary

[Junior J. Junior III]

Let's go back to crystalline spheres and immutable heavens. That was a much safer design model

Re:Or earth could turn into an elephant

[Dystopian Rebel]

There are tiny odds of just about anything happening

I know that fervent believers will condemn my denial of the Elephant Rapture, but there is zero chance of the Earth turning into a proboscidean of any sort.