Did a rogue star change the makeup of our solar system? [Report]



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A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute and Queen's University used new information to test a theory suggesting that a rogue star passed quite close to our solar system there are millions of years to change configuration. The group wrote an article describing his ideas and posted it on the pre-printed server arXiv .

In recent years, space scientists have begun to suspect that something extraordinary happened to our solar system during its early years. Many have begun to wonder why there is not as much material in the outer solar system as logic suggests. Also, why is Neptune so much more massive than Uranus, which is closer to the sun? And why do so many smaller objects in the outer solar system have so curiously formed orbits? In addressing such questions, many space scientists began to wonder if a star could have wandered during the early years of the solar system – just close enough to shoot some of the objects in the outer parts of the solar system. their previous positions

The idea of ​​a rogue star was debated for a while, but the theory was not adopted because of the timing – if a star had erred, that would have been about 10 million years after the birth of our galaxy. But objects in the outer solar system have not yet formed, making it unlikely that they have been impacted by a rogue star.

In their article, the researchers of this new effort suggest that recent research from other teams studying the formation of other solar systems has shown that the outer parts of these systems may be more developed than their own. internal parts. They suggest that if this was the case for our solar system, then it is possible that the outer parts have matured to the point where they could have been impacted by the gravitational pull of a passing star. To test their theory, they created a simulation of such a scenario and found that it corresponded very closely to what we are able to see today – a solar system with bizarre features to its outer edges.

More information:
External solar system possibly formed by a stellar overflight, arXiv: 1807.02960 [astro-ph.GA] arxiv.org/abs/1807.02960

Abstract

The planets of our Solar system formed from a gas dust disk. However, there are certain properties of the solar system that are particular in this context. First, the cumulative mass of all objects beyond Neptune (NWT) is only a fraction of what one would expect. Secondly, unlike the planets themselves, the NWT do not orbit around coplanar circular orbits around the Sun, but move primarily in inclined eccentric orbits and are complexly distributed. This implies that some processes have restructured the external solar system after its formation. However, some of the NWT, called Sednoids, move outside the area of ​​influence of the planets. External forces have therefore played an important role in the restructuring of the external solar system. The study presented here shows that a close flight of a nearby star can simultaneously lead to the lower mass density observed outside of 30 AU and excite the TNO on eccentric inclined orbits , including the Sednoids' family. In the past, it has been estimated that such overflights are rare during the relevant development phase. However, our numerical simulations show that such a scenario is far more likely than expected. An overview also naturally explains the curious fact that Neptune has a mass greater than that of Uranus. Our simulations suggest that a lot of extra Sednoids at high inclinations are still waiting for discovery, perhaps including bodies like the postulated planet X.

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A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute and Queen's University used new information to test a theory suggesting that a rogue star passed quite close to our solar system there are millions of years to change configuration. The group wrote an article describing his ideas and posted it on the pre-printed server arXiv .

In recent years, space scientists have begun to suspect that something extraordinary happened to our solar system during its early years. Many have begun to wonder why there is not as much material in the outer solar system as logic suggests. Also, why is Neptune so much more massive than Uranus, which is closer to the sun? And why do so many smaller objects in the outer solar system have so curiously formed orbits? In addressing such questions, many space scientists began to wonder if a star could have wandered during the early years of the solar system – just close enough to shoot some of the objects in the outer parts of the solar system. their previous positions

The idea of ​​a rogue star was debated for a while, but the theory was not adopted because of timing – if a star had erred, that would have been about 10 million years after the birth of our galaxy. But the objects in the outer solar system would still be forming, making it unlikely that they were impacted by a rogue star.

In their article, the researchers with this new effort suggest that recent research by other teams studying the formation of other solar systems has shown that the outer parts of these systems may be more developed than their internal parts. They suggest that if this was the case for our solar system, then it is possible that the outer parts have matured to the point where they could have been impacted by the gravitational pull of a passing star. To test their theory, they created a simulation of such a scenario and found that it corresponded very closely to what we are able to see today – a solar system with bizarre features to its outer edges.

More information:
External solar system possibly formed by a stellar flyover, arXiv: 1807.02960 [astro-ph.GA] arxiv.org/abs/1807.02960

Abstract

The planets of our Solar system formed from a gas dust disk. However, there are certain properties of the solar system that are particular in this context. First, the cumulative mass of all objects beyond Neptune (NWT) is only a fraction of what one would expect. Secondly, unlike the planets themselves, the NWT do not orbit around coplanar circular orbits around the Sun, but move primarily in inclined eccentric orbits and are complexly distributed. This implies that some processes have restructured the external solar system after its formation. However, some of the NWT, called Sednoids, move outside the area of ​​influence of the planets. External forces have therefore played an important role in the restructuring of the external solar system. The study presented here shows that a close flight of a nearby star can simultaneously lead to the lower mass density observed outside of 30 AU and excite the TNO on eccentric inclined orbits , including the Sednoids' family. In the past, it has been estimated that such overflights are rare during the relevant development phase. However, our numerical simulations show that such a scenario is far more likely than expected. An overview also naturally explains the curious fact that Neptune has a mass greater than that of Uranus. Our simulations suggest that a lot of extra Sednoids at high inclinations are still waiting for discovery, perhaps including bodies like the postulated planet X.

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