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 ...
Karen will definitely talk to the manager about that.
I wondered if anyone would post this.
1.4 million years from now we will be beings made of energy and with a mere thought fling the other star away.
My biggest hope is that the obunghole’s Pentagon will have been dismantled by then... I know that is probably a case of unbridled optimism, but I’m old and don’t know any better...
You are an optimist with stars in your eyes.
A few years ago, an earth-sized world was discovered around Proxima Centauri. So if and when we can send a space probe or spacecraft to the stars, I expect Proxima will be the first destination.
They must have really got under your skin.
*With what we know about gravity and massive objects how is this even possible?*
Because we don’t know EVERYTHING about gravity and massive objects.
The Oort ‘cloud’ is not much of a cloud- you could travel thought it and never hit a thing- never even come close
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