with the vastness of the universe
everything in it seems so spread out but
some objects are closer than you might
realize
every now and then a random interstellar
asteroid passes through the Oort cloud
the wall of icy debris at the very edge
of our solar system but what if a rogue
star unceremoniously rampaged right
through the Oort cloud how bad would it
be if it brought other planets along for
the ride this is what if and here's what
would happen if another star entered our
solar system what if I told you that a
rogue star has already invaded our son's
territory a dim red dwarf dubbed
Schultz's star crossed the Oort cloud
some 70,000 years ago it passed just 2.8
light-years away from the Sun and then
it made a turn in the opposite direction
without causing much trouble right now
another rogue star is moving in our
direction
Lisa 710 has about 60% of the mass of
our Sun and it's travelling across the
galaxy at 52 thousand kilometers per
hour how long do we have before this
stellar invader makes its way into the
solar system and what will happen when
it does if another star rampage through
the solar system the extent of the chaos
it would cause would depend on the size
of that star and its trajectory when
Schultz's star passed through the Oort
cloud it came five times closer than
Proxima Centauri the closest star to our
solar system Schultz's star didn't have
much effect on earth although around the
same time early humans almost got wiped
out by a massive volcanic eruption
but that was pure coincidence right in
any case before Schultz's stark turned
away minding its own business it did
change the orbits of about 10% of comets
and asteroids in the solar system but
what if it was a bigger incoming star
like please a 7/10 that's currently
making its way towards us Gliese 710
isn't scheduled to make its first
contact with the solar system for
another 1.2 9 million years but when it
does it could shake the earth quite a
bit at first the rogue star would make
its way into the Oort cloud at this
point it wouldn't affect us directly but
it would send massive chunks of space
rock showering the solar system about
170 meteors comets and asteroids would
hit the earth every day that's 10 times
more than what's bombarding our planet
right now comets and meteors might not
seem like a big deal since most of them
are small and they often fall in
unpopulated regions but back in 1908 in
Siberia it only took one asteroid to
obliterate 80,000 trees and blow out
windows 60 kilometers away if the same
asteroid were to hit New York the entire
city would be in the impact zone
all that if just a single star smaller
than the Sun slightly made it just
inside our solar system
what would a more massive star do well
if a star larger than our Sun entered
the Oort cloud it would disrupt the
orbital cycle for every planet it passed
since there are such large distances
within the solar system this disruption
would happen over the span of millions
of years it would be an almost
slow-motion chaos of debris waves it
might even set some planets on a
collision course and that's not the
worst it could get if the rogue star had
other planets and moons following it our
solar system would turn into a galactic
soup with stars and planets being pulled
out of their orbits
massive collisions would create a
rippling effect disrupting planetary
orbits even more eventually the earth
would be knocked out of its orbit - if
it wasn't already destroyed by meteor
storms and the remnants of other planets
not to sound too dramatic but there are
estimates that 40,000 stars have entered
the Oort cloud at some point in the
history of the solar system but they all
came here on just visiting trips chances
that any of those rogue stars will ever
make it past the Oort cloud are close to
zero let's just hope that we'll never
have to deal with anything like a black
hole coming too close to the solar
system but that's a story for another
whatever
you