In 1.35 million years , a star is going to put across near our Solar System , potentially sending a horde of comets our way . And a new study published inAstronomy & Astrophysicshas claimed this star may come even closer than thought .

The star is called Gliese 710 , which is about half the size of it of our Sun , and it is currently 64 unaccented - years from Earth . But it is steer towards us in the galaxy , and at its closest approach it ’ll be just 77 tripping - twenty-four hours off , or 13,365 AU ( 1 AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun ) . According to the study , by astronomers Filip Berski and Piotr A. Dybczyński from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland , this is five sentence closer than   previously count on .

The new computation were made using the European Space Agency ’s ( ESA ) Gaia space observatory , which is presently mapping every asterisk in the Milky Way .

This might seem far , but it ’s within a shell of comets that surrounds our Solar System , called the Oort Cloud , which expand anywhere from 5,000 to 200,000 AU . It ’s likely , therefore , that this star will disrupt these comets , possibly sending some our way .

“ Gliese 710 will trigger an observable cometary shower with a mean density of about ten comet per year , lasting for three to four million long time , ” the researchers wrote in their paper .

“ From our calculations we can expect that this star will have the impregnable influence on the Oort Cloud objects in the next ten million years , and even in the last several million age there has not been any such important object near the Sun . ”

What shock this outcome will have on the Solar System is n’t clear . For any man still around , they may notice another comet or two , although Jupiter unremarkably does a good job of sail them up . This is n’t the only adept that will number this close , though – Gizmodonotes that there are up to 14 others that could come within 3 light - days in the next few million years .

If one does total our elbow room , hopefully we ’ll have found a room todeflect itby then .

( H / T : Forbes )