Another Star Passed Through Our Oort Cloud 70,000 Years Ago

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 17, 2015 @08:05AM from the thanks-for-not-hitting-us dept.

New submitter mrthoughtful writes: According to researchers at the University of Rochester, a recently discovered dim star (Scholz's star) passed through our Oort cloud 70,000 years ago. At its closest, it was about 52,000 AU distant from Sol, or about 0.8 light-years. This is still quite a distance — Voyager 1 is about 125 AU away right now — but it's far closer than Proxima Centauri's current 266,000 AU. Still, maybe the best way to engage in interstellar travel is just to wait until the time is right.

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Re:I think you may have a math error (or I could h by NettiWelho · 2015-02-17 10:44 · Score: 3, Funny

I guess I should have noticed something was off when my result suggested it was moving at over 60% the speed of light...

Good thing I am not allowed to pilot a starship.