Exiled Planet Linked to Stellar Flyby 3 Million Years Ago (VIDEO)

University of California - Berkeley

Caption

Passing stars may have influenced our young solar system, accounting for the distant orbits of comets in the Oort cloud, Kuiper Belt objects such as Sedna, and the hypothetical Planet Nine. A new study published by astronomers Robert De Rosa and Paul Kalas presents the discovery of two stars that flew by the binary star HD 106906, possibly explaining why its distant gas giant planet HD 106906 b remains in a stable orbit instead of becoming an interstellar object such as 'Oumuamua.

Credit

Paul Kalas, UC Berkeley

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