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Planetary science

The Solar System's extended shelf life

Simulations show that orbital chaos can lead to collisions between Earth and the inner planets. But Einstein's tweaks to Newton's theory of gravity render these ruinous outcomes unlikely in the next few billion years.

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Figure 1: Trouble with Mercury.

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Laughlin, G. The Solar System's extended shelf life. Nature 459, 781–782 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459781a

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