On average, a star passes near the Solar system once every 50,000 years. Many make an innocent visit, but some get so close that their action becomes a cause for concern.
“How much can a star affect the Sun?” If you are one of those who say, let’s take a closer look at what can happen.
In fact, a faint red dwarf star called Scholz had already entered the borders of the Sun and invaded that region thousands of years ago.
This star’s first visit to the Sun was approximately 70,000 years ago and passed only 0.8 light-years from the Sun. The Scholz star ended his visit by returning quietly. However, it is estimated that our ancestors may have seen its pale reddish light many years ago.
Nowadays, a star named Gliese 710 continues to move towards the Sun. Gliese 710 has an average of 60% of the mass of the Sun and continues to travel across the galaxy at 52,000 km/h.
So what will happen if Gliese 710 one day enters the Solar system?
What will happen if any star attacks the Solar system depends entirely on the size and orbit of the star. For example, as the Scholz star passed through the Oort cloud, it came five times closer to the solar system than Proxima Centauri, one of the closest stars.
Fortunately, we were lucky and despite all this, Scholz could not create an effect that would create chaos. The Scholz star was only able to change the orbits of about 10% of the asteroids and comets in the Solar system. Additionally, Gliese 710 is not planned to make its first contact with the Solar system for another 1.29 million years.
Let’s keep thinking. What if something like this happens again?
If a star larger than the Sun enters the Oort cloud, the orbital cycle of any planet it passes will be negatively affected. Since the area of the solar system is quite large, these disruptions will of course occur over millions of years.
However, when that day comes, it is predicted that there will be chaos in slow motion. Some planets will come to the point of collision, and unfortunately, this is not the worst thing that can happen.
If a stray star entering the Solar system had different planets following it, the orbits of the stars and planets in the Solar system would interfere with each other.
There would probably be quite violent collisions, creating a ripple effect that would disrupt planetary orbits. In addition to all this, looking at the history of the Solar system, there are estimates that 40,000 stars once entered the Oort cloud.
However, considering that we have not experienced any disasters, it is possible to take a deep breath and conclude that these stars entering the Solar system are harmless and only visit this region.
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