Something big passed through Solar System and changed the orbit of its planets
The planets in solar do not have circular orbit around the Sun, including Earth which goes around in an elliptical orbit. A close encounter with a massive interstellar object may hold the key to understanding the peculiar orbits of the solar system’s giant planets, according to new research published on the preprint server arXiv. Specifically, a massive object, estimated to be between 2 and 50 times the mass of Jupiter, could have passed through the solar system during its early formation stages. Their findings suggest that a close encounter with a substellar object—something smaller than a star but more massive than a planet—provides a plausible explanation for the solar system’s current configuration. “Our results show that a single flyby could reproduce these features and offer new insights into the solar system’s early dynamics.” This groundbreaking scenario adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the solar system’s history may have included dramatic events involving interactions with passing celestial bodies.
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