Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will probably destroy each other after the sun runs out of fuel, new simulations hint

When the sun inevitably dies, not even the outer solar system will be safe from the resulting chaos, new research hints.Scientists have long thought the outer solar system ‪—‬ which comprises the four giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — would mostly retain its present-day appearance for hundreds of billions of years to come. But a new study suggests that the outer giants may develop weirdly shaped orbits as the sun runs out of fuel, causing the planets to cross paths and destroy themselves through collisions within three billion years of the sun’s transformation into a red giant.

The findings, published Sept. 21 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could change our understanding of what kinds of exoplanets orbit certain stars.