Alien star passed within a light-year of Sun just 70 000 years ago
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028651
BBC : The closest known flyby of our solar system by another star occurred a mere 70 000 years ago when a dim red dwarf passed within 0.8 light-year of the Sun. Discovered in 2013, Scholz’s star attracted the attention of Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester and colleagues because of its proximity to Earth and its relatively slow movement across the sky. In their paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers say that although the star probably passed through the outer Oort cloud, it does not appear to have perturbed the orbit of any of the trillions of comets found there. The researchers estimate that a star probably passes through the Oort cloud every 100 000 years or so, yet for one to come as close as Scholz’s star is much rarer; it occurs just once every 9 million years.
