Scholz’s star has disrupted the orbits of asteroids and comets in the Solar System

70 thousand. Years ago, a small reddish star approached the solar system at a distance of less than a light year. The encounter caused changes in the motion trajectory of some celestial bodies located in the Oort Cloud. Madrid and Cambridge scientists have confirmed that the impact of the star persists to this day. According to new calculations, Scholz’s star was closer to the Sun than previously thought. It is possible that the ancestors of humans observed red light in the sky at night.

When Neanderthals still lived on Earth, and wspoAs early humans began to leave Africa, the Scholz star, named after the German explorer, approached the solar system. Currently the object is about 20 light years from our planet, but 70,000 years ago it was in the Oort Cloud.

This is the sphere of influence of our star on objects in space. Scientists estimate that it extends to 100,000. astronomical units from the Sun (approximately this is about 1.5 light years, approx. 14,959,787,070,000 kilometersow).

Information about the passage of a Scholz star near the Solar System was first confirmed in 2015. The research was conducted by Prof. Eric Mamajek and his team of astronomersow from the University of Rochester (USA). Detailedos of the transit were presented in the scientific journal "The Astrophysical Journal Letters".

Now brothers Carlos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos of the Complutense University of Madrid, and Sverre J. Aarseth, from the University of Cambridge, have analyzed nearly 340 objectoin the Solar System with hyperbolic (V-shaped) orbits. The researchers showed that the trajectory of someohe passage of the Scholz star affected some of them. The results were published in the journal “Monthly Noices of the Royal Astronomical Society”.

Using mathematical simulations, we calculated the location in the sky from which theohe bulk of the object seems to have originatedow with hyperbolic orbits,” explains Carlos de la Fuente Marcos. Scientists believe that if the cause of the hyperbolic orbits was natural, the objects should be distributed rouniformly in the sky. However, through research, it has been discovered that there is an accumulation of similar objects in one placeow.

The research is consistent with Mamayek’s earlier findings and confirms the timing of the Scholz star’s passage near the solar system. – It may be a coincidence, but it is unlikely that zaroBoth location and timing are compatible, De la Fuente Marcos argues.

In addition, it turned out that the star may have passed much closer than previously thought. Scholz’s star is a system of subojny formed by a red and brown dwarf. If the new discovery is confirmed, it is possible that our ancestors before 70,000. years have seen a faint red light in the sky at night.

SourceoSource: Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, Science Daily, photo. José A. Peñas/SINC