After a couple of hundred thousand years, the solar system will meet with another star.

German astronomer Corinne Bailer-Jones (Coryn Bailer-Jones) made calculations according to which in the next half a million years our solar system should move closer to the minimum distance with 14 different stars. Average convergence - 3 light years. For a minimum distance, the Solar System will get close to the orange dwarf HIP 85605, a star that is now 16 light years away, in the constellation Hercules.

As you know, we do not live in a static world, but in a world where everything changes. The Earth revolves around the Sun, the Sun, with all its planets, makes a slow revolution around the center of our Galaxy. Other star systems move accordingly. Sometimes the stars come closer to then run for millions of years. Beyler Jones decided to calculate with what luminaries the Sun will come closer in the next hundreds of thousands of years.
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In order to calculate this, the astronomer took data from well-studied stars, and tried to predict the motion of both the Sun and its closest neighbors. It turned out that over a period of 40 million years, the Sun was moving closer or closer to about 40 different stars, at a distance of about 6.4 light years (on average).

It is worth noting that rapprochement with other luminaries is fraught for the solar system, as well as for the inhabitants of the Earth. For example, star gravity can affect the behavior of objects from the Oort cloud. In this case, some objects can descend from their usual orbit, and go deep into the solar system, colliding with everything that occurs on the way. In addition, a meeting with massive hot stars threatens the Earth with the destruction of the atmosphere as a result of exposure to the most powerful UV radiation. There is also the threat of a rapprochement with a star, which can turn into a Supernova. And this has already happened, apparently.

For example, there are radioactive isotopes on Earth that indicate the influence of Supernova on our planet in the past, millions of years ago.

It may well be that the star Gliese 710 will be the next “troublemaker” in the Oort Cloud. With a probability of 90%, this star will move closer to the Sun approximately at a distance from the light year in the next one and a half million years. Now Gliese 710 is 64 light years away.

According to some estimates, this approach will cause a change in the orbits of many comets. The bill goes to millions, and many comets will move in orbits that cross the orbit of the Earth.

In general, such a rapprochement is deadly for the Earth and its inhabitants. It remains only to hope that humanity, if it lives another million or another years, will be able to do something about it.