Proxima Centauri
Image: earthsky.org
As a passionate member of the natural science community, Valerie Varnuska of Westbury, NY, enjoys reading about astronomy. Astronomy buffs like Valerie Varnuska are often the first to become aware of new developments in the study of space, including its history, current happenings, and new discoveries.
While many think of stars as unmoving celestial bodies, recent research indicates that a red dwarf star called Scholz’s star came within one light year of our solar system approximately 70,000 years ago. For perspective, this is more than four times closer than the sun’s current closest neighbor, Proxima Centauri.
The first research suggesting this phenomenon looked at the star’s current motion and velocity and extrapolated backward. Other research coming from the Complutense University of Madrid, however, looked at the hyperbolic, or V-shaped, orbits of some objects within the solar system. Many of these objects are projected in the direction of the constellation of Gemini, which would fit the model of an encounter with Scholz’s star. This close encounter does not explain all objects on hyperbolic orbits, however, which means other explanations are necessary to capture the full picture of unusual objects in the solar system.
Valerie Varnuska 