roccurssomewhereinthesystem,startingfromacertaininitialconfiguration(chambers,wetherillitotanikawa1999).asystemisdefinedasexperiencingacloseencounterwhentwobodiesapproachoneanotherwithinanareaofthelargerhillradius.otherwisethesystemisdefinedasbeingstable.henceforwardwestatethatourplanetarysystemisdynamicallystableifnocloseencounterhappensduringtheageofoursolarsystem,about±5gyr.incidentally,thisdefinitionmaybereplacedbyoneinwhichanoccurrenceofanyorbitalcrossingbetweeneitherofapairofplanetstakesplace.thisisbecauseweknowfromexperiencethatanorbitalcrossingisverylikelytoleadtoacloseencounterinplanetaryandprotoplanetarysystems(yoshinaga,kokubomakino1999).ofcoursethisstatementcannotbesimplyappliedtosystemswithstableorbitalresonancessuchastheneptune–plutosystem. 1.2previousstudiesandaimsofthisresearch inadditiontothevaguenessoftheconceptofstability,theplanetsinoursolarsystemshowacharactertypicalofdynamicalchaos(sussmanwisdom1988,1992).thecauseofthischaoticbehaviourisnowpartlyunderstoodasbeingaresultofresonanceoverlapping(murraylecar,franklinholman2001).however,itwouldrequireintegratingoveranensembleofplanetarysystemsincludingallnineplanetsforaperiodcoveringseveral10gyrtothoroughlyunderstandthelong-termevolutionofplanetaryorbits,sincechaoticdynamicalsystemsarecharacterizedbytheirstrongdependenceoninitialconditions. fromthatpointofview,manyofthepreviouslong-termnumericalintegrationsincludedonlytheouterfiveplanets(sussmankinoshitanakai1996).thisisbecausetheorbitalperiodsoftheouterplanetsaresomuchlongerthanthoseoftheinnerfourplanetsthatitismucheasiertofollowthesystemforagivenintegrationperiod.atpresent,thelongestnumericalintegrationspublishedinjournalsarethoseofduncanlissauer(1998).althoughtheirmaintargetwastheeffectofpost-main-sequencesolarmasslossonthestabilityofplanetaryorbits,theyperformedmanyintegrationscoveringupto~1011yroftheorbitalmotionsofthefourjovianplanets.theinitialorbitalelementsandmassesofplanetsarethesameasthoseofoursolarsysteminduncanlim.XIApe.COm