A recent study suggests that a massive object could have warped our solar system’s orbits, causing them to tilt and become oval instead of circular. The researchers, led by Garett Brown and Hanno Rein from the University of Toronto, and Renu Malhotra from the University of Arizona, propose that an object between 2-50 times Jupiter’s mass may have collided with our solar system early in its formation.
The team simulated various scenarios, including flybys into the inner solar system, to test the hypothesis. They found that if such a massive object had entered our solar system, it could have caused one of our planets to be flung out of its orbit within 20 million years, or slightly alter its orbit in other cases.
While the chances of this event are slim, with estimates ranging from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 10,000, the researchers argue that opportunities for such encounters may not be uncommon. With the Milky Way full of suitable star clusters, it’s possible that our solar system has already had a close encounter.
The study is yet to be peer-reviewed and is available on the preprint server arXiv. The discovery highlights the complexities of our solar system’s formation and the potential for future encounters with interstellar objects.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/giant-object-may-warped-solar-054538953.html