Several billion years is right around the initial development of life on earth. Interesting
sergius64 on
So this is an alternate theory to that whole Planet X thing?
rocketsocks on
tl;dr simulations on close stellar encounters early in the solar system’s history point to an encounter with a 0.8 solar mass star at a distance of just 110 AU (closer than Voyager 1 & 2 are now, nearly 4x the distance of Neptune) which seems most consistent with observed characteristics of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), specifically their high eccentricity and inclinations. Such encounters would be more likely within the first few million years of the solar system due to the closer proximity to stars within the open cluster of stars that came from the star forming region our own Sun was formed in. Additionally, such an encounter would have sent objects into the inner solar system, which could explain the high numbers of irregular moons of the outer planets.
3 Comments
Several billion years is right around the initial development of life on earth. Interesting
So this is an alternate theory to that whole Planet X thing?
tl;dr simulations on close stellar encounters early in the solar system’s history point to an encounter with a 0.8 solar mass star at a distance of just 110 AU (closer than Voyager 1 & 2 are now, nearly 4x the distance of Neptune) which seems most consistent with observed characteristics of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), specifically their high eccentricity and inclinations. Such encounters would be more likely within the first few million years of the solar system due to the closer proximity to stars within the open cluster of stars that came from the star forming region our own Sun was formed in. Additionally, such an encounter would have sent objects into the inner solar system, which could explain the high numbers of irregular moons of the outer planets.