Stability of the Solar System is unlikely any of the planets will collide with each other or be ejected from the system in the next few billion years, and the Earth's orbit will be relatively stable. Since Newton's law of gravitation (1687), mathematicians and astronomers (such as Laplace, Lagrange, Gauss, Poincaré, Kolmogorov, Vladimir Arnold and Jürgen Moser) have searched for evidence for the stability of the planetary motions, and this quest led to many mathematical developments, and several successive 'proofs' of stability of the Solar System. The orbits of the planets are open to long-term variations. Modeling the Solar System is a case of the
Minor planet asteroids. A minor planet seen releasing gas may be dually classified as a comet. Objects are called dwarf planets if their self-gravity is sufficient to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium and form an ellipsoidal shape. All other minor planets and comets are called "small Solar System bodies". The IAU stated that the term "minor planet" may still be used, but the term "small Solar System body" will be preferred. However, for purposes of numbering and naming, the traditional distinction between minor planet and comet is still used. Hundreds of thousands of minor planets have been discovered within the Solar System and thousands