A long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupts out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT on August 31, 2012. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel
A long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupts out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT on August 31, 2012. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of September 3, 2012. The image above includes an image of Earth to show the size of the CME compared to the size of Earth. Reuters

Some would say that the given time frame is truly a long stretch from today. However, the big threat that the phenomena might cause makes the study worth considering as it will have direct effect to future humanity.

European astrophysicist Coryn Bailer-Jones who works at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany is predicting that around 14 stars might come within the next few million years. The astrophysicist came to this prediction after analysing the computer-simulated orbits of more than 50,000 stars that are nearby. The prediction also says that among the thousands of neighboring stars, there at least two that humanity should worry about, Forbes reports.

Bailer-Jones' study is set to appear in an upcoming issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics journal. According to the study, the possibility of the dwarf stars entering the boundaries of the solar system might potentially disturb the trillions of comets orbiting in the Oort cloud beyond the primary planets. This might send many comets into the inner solar system and has the potential to hit Earth. Apparently, the comets are made of rocks, dust and organic materials.

According to New Scientist's report, the two stars that have 90 percent probability of reaching the solar system the closest are named as Hip 85605 and GL 710. The Hip 85605 might reach the solar system in 0.13 to 0.65 light years away, while the GL 710 might take around 0.32 to 1.44 light years in the next 1.3 million years.

The estimate on the current position of the Hip 85605 and GL 710 is not accurate and could still be wrong. However, the threat posed by the movements of these stars nearing the solar system is not a joke.

Report says that the Earth can be affected in three ways. First, the gravity can attract comets into the inner solar system and the passing comets might harshly affect Earth's atmosphere due to the powerful ultraviolet radiation that the comets might cause. Second, a small number of the alleged stars might explode like supernova while passing through the Oort Cloud. Finally, the study says that the effect of the supernova remnants could cause long-term global cooling. The global cooling was also suspected to have wiped out the dinosaurs in the past and it is possible that's such incident might wipe out the human race millions of years from now.

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