Everything in the Universe appears to be spread out due to its immensity. However, some items are closer than you think. A random interstellar asteroid passes through the Oort cloud, the frozen debris wall at the very frontier of our Solar System, every now and again.
But what if a rogue star ripped through the Oort cloud without warning? And how horrible would it be if other planets came along for the ride?
What if I told you that our Sun's territory had already been invaded by a rogue star? Scholz's star, a faint red dwarf, crossed the Oort cloud some 70,000 years ago. It was only 0.8 light-years away from the Sun as it passed. Then it turned around without causing too much disturbance in the opposite way.
Another wayward star is heading straight for us right now. "A red dwarf star about 20 light years from the Solar System" 710 is around 60% the mass of our Sun and is flying at a speed of 52,000 kilometers per hour across the galaxy (32,000 mph).
How much longer will it be until this star invader enters our Solar System? What will happen when that happens?
The extent of the chaos that another star would produce in the Solar System would be determined by the size of that star and its course. Scholz's star was five times closer than Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System, when it travelled through the Oort cloud.
Scholz's star had little impact on Earth, albeit a major volcanic outburst at the same time nearly wiped out early humanity. But wasn't that purely coincidental? In any case, before Scholz's star went off to do its own thing, it shifted the orbits of around 10% of the Solar System's comets and asteroids.
But what if it was a larger oncoming star, such as"A red dwarf star about 20 light years from the Solar System" 710, that is currently approaching us?
It will take another 1.29 million years for "A red dwarf star about 20 light years from the Solar System' 710 to establish its initial encounter with the Solar System. However, when it occurs, it has the potential to cause significant shaking on the planet’s.
The rogue star would initially make its way into the Oort cloud. It wouldn't directly affect us at this stage. However, it would bombard the Solar System with enormous bits of cosmic rock.
Every day, some 170 meteors, comets, and asteroids would strike the Earth. That's ten times the amount currently assaulting our globe. Because most comets and meteors are tiny and fall in unpopulated areas, they may not seem like a huge concern.
In 1908, however, a single asteroid in Siberia obliterated 80,000 trees and blew out Windows 60 kilometers (37 miles) away. If the same asteroid collided with New York, the entire city would be destroyed.
And that's supposing a single star slightly smaller than the Sun snuck into our Solar System. What would a bigger star do in this situation?
Every planet's orbital cycle would be disrupted if a star larger than our Sun reached the Oort cloud. Because of the vast distances within the Solar System, this disruption would take millions of years to occur. Debris waves would erupt in a near-slow-motion mayhem. It's possible that some planets will collide as a result.
And that's not even the worst-case scenario. If other planets and moons followed the renegade star, our Solar System would become a galactic soup, with stars and planets being yanked from their orbits. Collisions of this magnitude would cause a rippling effect, further distorting planetary orbits.
If it hadn't already been destroyed by meteor showers and the ruins of other planets, the Earth would eventually be thrown out of its orbit. To avoid sounding dramatic, it is estimated that 40,000 stars have entered the Oort cloud at some point in the Solar System's history. However, they were all on "just visiting" excursions.
There's a slim chance that any of those wayward stars will ever make it past the Oort cloud. Let's just hope we never have to deal with anything as dangerous as a black hole approaching the Solar System.
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