The ultimate fate of a nearby four-planet system: cosmic pinball, then game over

Bad news: Any potential aliens that live in the HR 8799 planetary system have only about 3 billion years to learn how to build starships before their planets are ejected into interstellar space when the star dies.

Good news: The planets are only 30-40 million years old so there are no aliens there anyway.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

HR 8799 is a young nearby star, just 135 light years from Earth. The star is about 1.5 times the Sun's mass, making it brighter and hotter than the Sun. It's likely part of a small...