Earth and Mars can collide in billions of years

American geophysicist Steven Myers of the University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA) did not rule out that Earth and Mars could collide in billions of years, Scientific American popular scientific magazine writes.

Myers, along with colleagues, conducted a study in which he concluded that the solar system is chaotic.

“The main discovery of this study was the discovery of the first real solid, unambiguous geological evidence, which confirms the idea that the solar system is chaotic,” Myers quotes.

Speaking of randomness, Myers uses the mathematical meaning of the word, according to which the future of an integrated system depends strictly on the initial conditions. Thus, seemingly random changes in the orbits of planets can occur due to the barely discernible gravitational interaction between objects in the solar system.

“This is also known as the” butterfly effect. “This is exactly the same phenomenon, the idea is that a butterfly flying over the Indian Ocean can affect the weather conditions over North America a week later,” the magazine writes.

The Myers team investigated rock in the state of Colorado. It consists of sedimentary layers, indicative of climatic changes that were caused by fluctuations in the amount of sunlight entering the planet. According to scientists, this is the result of changes in the Earth’s orbit.

According to the magazine, over the past 50 million years, the Earth’s orbit changed its shape slightly every 2.4 million years, which, accordingly, led to climatic changes. The study of the breed in Colorado allowed scientists to establish that approximately 85 million years ago this periodicity was 1.2 million years. According to the researchers, this is due to the interaction of the Earth and Mars, which is quite expected from a chaotic system.

According to Myers, one of the possible consequences is the clash of Mars with the Earth. However, the geophysicist noted that the likelihood of such an outcome is extremely small.

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