Question: Will any of the planets in the solar system ever collide?

Sarah Martin answered on 19 Jun 2012:

Hi itssmeemayaa!

It’s me! The answer is yes, maybe – but not without good reason.
– In one million years, the hypergiant Eta Carinae, which is 7500 light years from the Sun, may go hypernova and explode, so that might make some of our planets collide as they’re bounced around with that
– In about 3 billion years, our Milky Way galaxy is expected to collide with the Andromeda galaxy. Some planets may collide then, we don’t know yet!
– In 5 billion years the Sun will turn into a “red giant” star as it runs out of fuel inside. It will expand and maybe engulf Earth and other planets, but that’s not technically a collision.

But this is all a very very long way in the future! To put it into perspective, the universe has existed for just over 13 billion years, Earth for just over 4 billion years, and the human race as we know it for only about 200 thousand years. The ancient Egyptians lived 5,000 years ago and photograps have only existed for about 150 years… so peanuts really!

🙂 Sarah