A question about nearby stars...

[Captain-insane]

According to Wikipedia, in 1.4 million years time, the star Gliese 710 will be 1.1 light years from the Sol system, my question is, what will be the star(s) that will approach the closest to the Sol system in the next 250 million years .

Sorry if the question doesn't make sense, i could'nt think of a way to put it .

[selden]

I don't think we can know the answer: that's a full rotation of the galaxy. I suspect many stars are likely to make a close pass during that time. We have a vague idea of the orbits of only about 14K nearby stars at the moment. See http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/p ... 08-04.html

The distance and velocity measurements that the GAIA satellite will be able to do will improve the situation dramatically, though. See http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/i ... fareaid=26

[Captain-insane]

OK, thanks Selden.