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

A team of researchers from the Max-Planck Institute and Queen's University has used new information to test a theory that suggests a rogue star passed close enough to our solar system millions of years ago to change its configuration. The group has written a paper describing their ideas and have posted it on the arXiv preprint server.

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Credit: arXiv:1807.02960 [astro-ph.GA]

Effect of a prograde, parabolic fly-by of a star with a) M=0.5 M , b) M2= 1, M and c) M2= 5 M that is inclined by 60 degree and has a angle of periastron equal zero. The perihelion distance is always chosen in such a way as to lead to a 30-35 AU disc. The top row indicates the eccentricity distribution of the matter with a central area of most particles on circular orbits and more eccentric orbits at larger distances form the Sun. The eccentricities are indicated by the different colours given in the bar. The origin of the different eccentricity populations in the original disc can be seen in bottom row, where matter indicated in grey becomes unbound from the Sun. Note that in c) the path of the perturber is not visible because it is outside the shown frame.

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Rogue stars are moving so quickly they’re leaving the Milky Way, and never coming back.

How in the Universe could this happen?

Roughly 70,000 years ago a red dwarf and its brown dwarf companion sped by at a distance of less than 1 light year from our sun, disturbing a number of Oort Cloud objects that are said to be off-kilter to this day.