Undergrad Exploring Planetary Orbits and the Sun's Rotation

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The discussion centers on the misalignment between planetary orbits and the Sun's rotation, noting a significant difference of about 6 degrees. It highlights that the Sun's total angular momentum is relatively small compared to that of the planets, accounting for only a few percent. A proposed theory suggests that the collision of an Earth-sized body with the Sun during the solar system's formation could have caused this misalignment. This event would have been sufficient to alter the Sun's angular momentum vector by several degrees. Overall, the conversation explores potential explanations for the observed discrepancies in orbital alignments.
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Are there any good theories which can explain how the orbits of planets are not aligned with the rotation of the Sun?
I gather there is about 6 degrees of differance, which is not small.
 
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The total angular momentum of the sun is pretty small compared to the angular momentum of the planets (a few percent). If I calculated correctly, it wouldn't take a lot to shift the sun's angular momentum vector by a few degrees. If an Earth-sized body had fallen into the sun during the formation of the solar system, which is quite feasible, I think it would be enough to cause the observed misalignment.
 

Thread 'Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs)'

UC Berkely, December 16, 2025 https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/16/whats-powering-these-mysterious-bright-blue-cosmic-flashes-astronomers-find-a-clue/ AT 2024wpp, a luminous fast blue optical transient, or LFBOT, is the bright blue spot at the upper right edge of its host galaxy, which is 1.1 billion light-years from Earth in (or near) a galaxy far, far away. Such objects are very bright (obiously) and very energetic. The article indicates that AT 2024wpp had a peak luminosity of 2-4 x...
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