Solar System stability threatened by Sun's evolution, study finds

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests the Solar System may destabilize much faster than previously anticipated. Research indicates that as the Sun ages and eventually transforms into a white dwarf, the gas giants—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—could lose their stable orbits and be ejected into interstellar space.

In approximately 90% of the simulations conducted, these massive planets lost orbital stability or were expelled within three billion years of the Sun becoming a white dwarf. This contradicts previous scientific models which suggested that while the Sun would lose mass, the outer planets would simply move into wider, stable orbits.

The instability is attributed to the Sun losing its outer layers unevenly. This non-uniform mass loss could provide the Sun with small gravitational impulses, potentially altering its movement and disrupting the gravitational balance of the planetary system. Observations from the Gaia space telescope support this, showing that binary star pairs are rarer when one star has become a white dwarf, suggesting such stars receive a velocity boost during their transition.