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ROCHESTER, New York — The solar system had a “close call” with a dim star about 70,000 years ago, according to a new study.
Researchers said the relatively “recent” visit is the closest a star has ever come to our solar system. “Scholz’s Star” likely passed through the Oort Cloud of comets on the edge of the solar system, according to the study by an international group of astronomers published in The Astrophysical Journal.
“Most stars this nearby show much larger tangential motion,” co-author Eric Mamajek said in a statement. “The small tangential motion and proximity initially indicated that the star was most likely either moving towards a future close encounter with the solar system, or it had ‘recently’ come close to the solar system and was moving away.”
“Sure enough, the radial velocity measurements were consistent with it running away from the Sun’s vicinity — and we realized it must have had a close flyby in the past,” he said.
The star came within .8 light-years of Earth, which is five times closer than the current closest known star, Proxima Centauri, according to researchers. Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years away.
Scholz’s Star is now about 20 light-years away, according to the study. It travels with a brown dwarf companion.
