A Close Encounter of the Stellar Kind
Explanation:
The unassuming star centered in this
sky view will one day be our
next door
stellar neighbor.
The faint 9th magnitude
red dwarf currently 63
light-years away in
the constellation Ophiucus was recently discovered
to be on a course toward our Solar System.
Known in catalogs
of nearby stars as Gliese 710 it is
predicted to come within 1 light-year of the Sun ... a million years from now.
At that distance this star, presently much
too faint to be seen by the
naked eye, will blaze at 0.6 magnitude - rivaling the apparent
brightness of the
mighty red giant Antares.
Gliese 710 poses
no direct collision danger itself although its
gravitational influence will likely scatter comets out of
the Solar System's reservoir, the Oort cloud,
sending some
inbound.
This future stellar encounter was discovered by researchers
Joan Garcia-Sanchez and Robert Preston
(
JPL), and collaborators while
studying
stars in the solar neighborhood
using data from
the Hipparcos Astrometry Satellite.
The star field shown is based on the
Palomar Digitized Sky Survey and
is 1/4 degree wide (about half the diameter of the full moon).
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
