Sun's death will destabilize giant planet orbits within a billion years

A Caltech study led by Konstantin Batygin finds that asymmetric mass ejections as the Sun becomes a white dwarf will destabilize the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune within about 1 billion years, replacing a prior 30-billion-year estimate. The paper was published in Astrophysical Journal Letters on September 21, 2026.

• 672 simulations were integrated for 3 billion years after white-dwarf formation
• At ejection masses near 10⁻⁴ solar masses, 96% of systems became unstable
• About 40% of runs broke down before the white dwarf even formed
• Gaia observations show white dwarfs receive recoil kicks of about 0.75 km/s