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A Star Grazed Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago, Early Humans Likely Saw It (space.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Space.com: Some distant objects in our solar system bear the gravitational imprint of a small star's close flyby 70,000 years ago, when modern humans were already walking the Earth, a new study suggests. In 2015, a team of researchers announced that a red dwarf called Scholzs star apparently grazed the solar system 70,000 years ago, coming closer than 1 light-year to the sun. For perspective, the suns nearest stellar neighbor these days, Proxima Centauri, lies about 4.2 light-years away. The astronomers came to this conclusion by measuring the motion and velocity of Scholzs star -- which zooms through space with a smaller companion, a brown dwarf or "failed star" -- and extrapolating backward in time. Scholz's star passed by the solar system at a time when early humans and Neanderthals shared the Earth. The star likely appeared as a faint reddish light to anyone looking up at the time, researchers with the new study said. The study has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.
Generations of slashditters wil tell the tale of AC's first post on this story.
... and check Sun's insurance coverage for interstellar collisions. Is a repair insurance included in its policy ? Does it allow full replacement of damaged planets, or is it just offering a mere fix of broken parts ? What about the insurance coverage offered to passengers traveling either on board of planets or space veichles ?
For perspective, the suns nearest stellar neighbor ...
It came so close that it dislodged nearly all of our apostrophes, leaving /. editors unable to use them for 70,000 years to come.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
As someone who identifies as a member of the neaderthal community, I still am discriminated against on a daily basis. This has been going on since human life began - somewhere in the middle East - and continues till this day. Daily occurrences of being pulled over for what is likely "driving while neanderthal" are all to common. When I suggest that is the reason for stopping me, they play dumb about my obvious neanderthal heritage. Will this ever end? When will you homo sapiens pay for the suffering of my peoples?
Apparently it would have been a tenth magnitude object, undoubtedly visible in Neanderthal telescopes.
While I consider that everything is at a safe distance
Maybe the coastal tides were 0.001mm higher.
I'm sure they were logging that data back then. It was important for Henge building.
No sig today...