Posted on 05/22/2020 6:50:08 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Our sun has had close encounters with other stars in the past, and it’s due for a dangerously close one in the not-so-distant future.
Every 50,000 years or so, a nomadic star passes near our solar system. Most brush by without incident. But, every once in a while, one comes so close that it gains a prominent place in Earth’s night sky, as well as knocks distant comets loose from their orbits.
The most famous of these stellar interlopers is called Scholz’s Star. This small binary star system was discovered in 2013. Its orbital path indicated that, about 70,000 years ago, it passed through the Oort Cloud, the extended sphere of icy bodies that surrounds the fringes of our solar system. Some astronomers even think Scholz’s Star could have sent some of these objects tumbling into the inner solar system when it passed.
However, Scholz’s Star is relatively small and rapidly moving, which should have minimized its effect on the solar system. But in recent years, scientists have been finding that these kinds of encounters happen far more often than once expected. Scholz’s Star wasn’t the first flyby, and it won’t be the last. In fact, we’re on track for a much more dramatic close encounter in the not-too-distant future.
SNIP
A massive star steamrolling through the outer solar system is exactly what Gaia data show will happen less than 1.4 million years from now, according to a 2016 study. A star called Gliese 710 will pass within 10,000 astronomical units — 1 AU is equal to the average Earth-Sun distance of 93 million miles. That’s well within the outer edge of the Oort Cloud.
(Excerpt) Read more at astronomy.com ...
Orbits disturbed. Unbelievably high tides. Massive climate changes. Surprised they haven’t blamed this on Trump.
Gliese 710 is a relatively dim, main sequence orange-red or red dwarf star of spectral and luminosity K5-M1 V (NASA Star and Exoplanet Database; ARICNS; Joy and Abt, 1974; and Upgren et al, 1972).
The star may have about 0.4 to 0.6 (possibly 42 percent) of Sol’s mass (García-Sánchez et al, 1999; and Weissman et al, 1997), possibly 67 percent of its diameter (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 691), and only 4.2 percent of its visual luminosity. It is not a strong radio emitter.
However, Gliese 710 is a variable star with the New Variable Star designation NSV 10635. Some other useful star catalogue designations include: Gl 710, Hip 89825, BD-01 3474, HD 168442, HD 168442, U449, and Vys/McC 63.
http://www.solstation.com/stars2/gl710.htm
A precursor to “Lucifer’s Hammer”
I had no idea the Oort Cloud extended that close to Proxima Centauri.
Almost one third of the Oort Cloud is closer to Proxima than it is to our sun.
You would think that Proxima and its two companion stars would have won the gravitational tug of war for a big chunk of the O-Cloud!
CoviCowards will bleat like sheep and start sacrificing their children to appease their new star god.
Better stay inside, just in case.
Stay inside again?
But one of the residing mysteries of it centers on, well, is the toilet. More specifically, the three sea shells that have replaced toilet paper in the future.
Whilst we’re no closer to working out how the three sea shells work, we do now know where the idea came from. They were the creation of screenwriter Daniel Waters, and at a Q&A in 2014, he was asked about them.
And his paraphrased reply? “I won’t tell you the actual secret, but I’ll tell you where it came from”, he told the crowd after a screening of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.
“There’s a scene where Stallone has to use a restroom. I’m trying to come up with futuristic things you’d find in there. I was having trouble, so I called my buddy, another screenwriter across town, asked him if he had any ideas. Ironically enough that guy was taking a dump when he answered the phone, looked around his bathroom and said ‘I have a bag of seashells on my toilet as a decoration?’ I said ‘Okay, I’ll make something out of that.’”
I, for one, plan on being out of town that day.
It’s apparently relative - 1.4 million years from now being considered the not-too-distant future.
==========+=======
LOL!
Meanwhile Biden is spending full time researching the topic... well, actually singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star while he washes his hands.
If mankind is still around in some form by then and keeps progressing technologically, then they will just move the star by a couple of thousand AU’s.
[Berosus:] I thought the Oort Cloud was supposed to be closer than the Heliopause, the imaginary line between the solar system and interstellar space. Didn’t the Pioneer (10 & 11) and Voyager probes cross the Heliopause already? This article gives me another reason to ask if the Oort Cloud really exists.
IMHO, the Oort Cloud has a merely hypothetical existence, coming into being as a kludge to fix problems with the most popular family of Solar System formation models..
|
... and all the Nervous Nancys and Karens will be demanding we wear masks to protect us all from this star.
So, does anything orbit Proxima Centauri? Does its “sphere of influence” interfere with our sun’s?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
