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

Posted by Soulskill on 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.

1 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. That is close! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In galactic distance, this was close and not very long ago.

    I wonder how many comets it kicked out of the cloud and have cause some ruckus here on Terra.