Strange Uranus-size alien planet could be trapped in edge of the Solar System

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Scientists ran complex computer simulations to assess how solar systems tend to cast off large planets, and also how a planetary system could catch one such “orphan” planet. With up to a tenth of a star’s original planets likely to be cast out into deep space, scientists say there is a 7 per cent chance of our solar system capturing an ice giant planet like Uranus in the Oort cloud. Researchers estimate that “one in every 200-3000 stars could host an Oort cloud planet.” However, they say this prediction is likely an overestimate as the estimate does not account for instabilities that take place at the early stages of a solar system that could affect its star birth cluster, or planet stripping from passing stars. “If the Solar System’s dynamical instability happened after birth cluster dissolution, there is an about 7 per cent chance that an ice giant was captured in the Sun’s Oort cloud,” scientists wrote in the study.