Scholz's star passed through the Oort cloud

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SUMMARY

Scholz's star, a small star with 8% the mass of the sun, passed within 0.8 light-years of the sun approximately 70,000 years ago, as confirmed by Eric E. Mamajek and colleagues in their 2015 study published in The Astrophysical Journal. This close flyby has a 98% probability of having caused perturbations in the Oort cloud, potentially leading to a long-period comet shower. The study suggests that while Scholz's star was too distant to affect the inner Oort cloud significantly, similar past events could have had more dramatic consequences on the solar system's cometary activity.

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Astronomers, astrophysicists, and students interested in stellar interactions, cometary dynamics, and the historical evolution of the solar system will benefit from this discussion.

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Eric E. Mamajek, Scott A. Barenfeld, Valentin D. Ivanov, Alexei Y. Kniazev, Petri Väisänen, Yuri Beletsky, Henri M. J. Boffin. THE CLOSEST KNOWN FLYBY OF A STAR TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM. The Astrophysical Journal, 2015; 800 (1): L17 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/800/1/L17

The Science Daily article discusses the observation (with 98% probability) that analysis of the trajectory of Scholz's star (a tiny nearby star with 8% the mass of the sun) passed within 0.8 lightyears of the sun 70000 years ago.

This relates to the concept of Oort cloud perturbations by external bodies causing Oort cloud objects to change trajectory and orbit much closer to the sun. Sort of a looong period comet shower. From our point of view anyway. The reasoning goes, it appears possible to have happened previously with more dramatic results, since Scholz's star apparently was too far away to impact the inner Oort cloud. (my version of the article's comments).
 
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