Could some great gravitational disturbance far beyond our solar system cascade in effect, leaving ours askew?

Question

Theoretically, of course. Real science, please.

Answer 1

We dont really have any method of measuring the cascading effects of the changes but you can rest assured that all the mass in the universe interacts with all the rest. As our solar system moves around the galaxy we exist in we move up and down in the plane of stars and this causes massive shifts in gravitation effects. For one this sometimes dislodges comets from the oort cloud and sends them shooting towards us.

We hopefully will be able to measure these effects soon. Remember that Gravity is a force that acts on a microscopic scale, you hardly notice it except between us and the earth, our strongest gravitational relationship. We do share gravitational relationships with EVERYTHING around us, like ur computer etc, its just so tiny in magintude (compared to, say, magnetism) its hard to notice.

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Also the Jupiter effect is for real. If it werent for Jupiters mass we almost certainly would not exist. It is a massive Vaccume cleaner that sucks in amost everything (see: S-L-9 impact). This is not related to this discussion however. The writer means things beyond our solar system, like black holes.

Answer 2

I am no scientist, so I won't even venture a guess on this...it's a good question, however. It does remind me of a prediction made by a couple of scientists more that 25 years ago concerning an event that proved to be not true. It was called the "Jupiter Effect"...

The Jupiter Effect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1974, John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann published The Jupiter Effect, a book predicting that an alignment of the planets would create a number of catastrophes, including a great earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in 1982. The predicted catastrophes did not occur, as the gravitational effect of the other planets on the Earth's crust is minimal even at their closest approach. In his 1999 book "The Little Book of Science," Dr. Gribbin said of his theory "...I don't like it, and I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it."

Answer 3

Sure, anything passing through the Oort Cloud would rain comets down on the solar system like the Fourth of July.

Comets disturb Meteors and Meteors kill Humanity.

Or do you mean throw our Solar Neighborhood off?

Answer 4

Probably not in our lifetime ;) Should be more worried about climate change..
There was recently an episode of NOva which explained that at the center of every galaxy is a black hole. Ours has been relatively quiet, but a period of increased activity (swallowing stars) would definitely generate dire consequences for us-several billion years from now, I believe they said.