A Star Grazed Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago, and Early Humans Likely Saw It

[Calista241]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Space.com

Some distant objects in our solar system bear the gravitational imprint of a small star's close flyby 70,000 years ago, when modern humans were already walking the Earth, a new study suggests.

In 2015, a team of researchers announced that a red dwarf called Scholz's star apparently grazed the solar system 70,000 years ago, coming closer than 1 light-year to the sun. For perspective, the sun's nearest stellar neighbor these days, Proxima Centauri, lies about 4.2 light-years away. The astronomers came to this conclusion by measuring the motion and velocity of Scholz's star — which zooms through space with a smaller companion, a brown dwarf or "failed star" — and extrapolating backward in time.

Scholz's star passed by the solar system at a time when early humans and Neanderthals shared the Earth. The star likely appeared as a faint reddish light to anyone looking up at the time, researchers with the new study said.

The new study bolsters the 2015 analysis with a different type of evidence. A research team led by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, of the Complutense University of Madrid, analyzed 339 known solar system bodies with hyperbolic orbits — paths through space that are V-shaped, rather than circular or elliptical.


Read more: https://www.space.com/40043-star-grazed-our-solar-system-disrupted-orbits.html

[brooklynite]

1. C'mon now; we all know the Universe is only 6,000 years old...

...and Satan placed this evidence to confuse us.

[3Hotdogs]

2. Yeah, ain't we got enuf fake news?

[NotASurfer]

3. What's next? The earth isn't flat? n/t

[Docreed2003]

26. Well not exactly flat...a disc, if you will...lol

[LudwigPastorius]

4. "Grazed Our Solar System"

The generous definition of the diameter of our solar system (the one that includes the most distant observed object, Sedna) = 900+/- astronomical units

The distance this star was estimated to be when it passed our system = 60,000+/- astronomical units

In equivalent distances, that's like someone coming within a little under two miles from you. "Oooh, almost grazed me!"

And, despite the dramatic depiction of our ancient ancestor looking up at the star in the night sky, when you click through to the original article, you get this:

At its closest point, Scholz's star would have been a 10th-magnitude star — 50 times too faint to be seen with the naked eye. However, brief flares on the star could have lit it up thousands of times brighter, making it potentially visible to early mankind for a few minutes or hours at a time, the researchers explained.

Never stop coming up with that hyperbole, internet science writers!

[LeftInTX]

5. LOL!!!

[paleotn]

6. details, details....

I also get tired of the hyperbole. But, I suppose they feel they have to do it to get eyeballs. It's a pity, because it's a wonderful finding without all the unnecessary glitz.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. I blame the Science Fiction Industrial Complex.

If people began realizing just how vast space is, and how far away, from everything else we are, they'd never buy into their stories. "Captain, the USS Throatwarbler is only 5,000 light years away. They can get here in 20 minutes.!"

[paleotn]

10. Yep....

but damn! Wouldn't it be cool to travel 5K light years in 20 minutes? Or just bend space time....anyone have a Black Hole handy?

[kurtcagle]

11. For a star, that is grazing

I have to agree the likelihood that humans actually saw the star is vanishingly small, but it is also worth noting that the boundary of a solar system is more defined by its heliopause (which is primarily magnetic in nature) rather than where the primary matter is. The heliopause for the sun is about half a light year in radius, so between gravitational and magnetic effects, Scholtz most likely did impact the Earth. Indeed, it's worth noting that about 70K years ago, there was a significant drop in temperatures that may have been a corollary effect of Scholtz passing by.

[LudwigPastorius]

15. "the boundary of a solar system is more defined by its heliopause"

The heliopause is about 120 astronomical units from the sun. Half of a light year is over 30,000 astronomical units. They estimated that Scholtz got as close as 63,000 astronomical units to the sun.

To truly say that Scholtz grazed the solar system, you'd have to definitely identify the oort cloud's outer limit, then include that in your definition of what constitutes the solar system.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. Hyperbolic orbits justify hyperbolic journalism ? ;) nt

[LanternWaste]

14. Then the verb is not relative, but rather absolute?

Then the verb 'grazed' is not relative, but rather absolute?

[LudwigPastorius]

16. I think "grazed" denotes that contact was made.

So, we're back to "where does the solar system begin/end?".

The furthest thing we've actually seen (Sedna) has a aphelion of about a thousand AUs, but some think the oort cloud extends past 50,000 AUs, in that case our illustrious headline writer is correct. But, only our descendants may ever know for sure how far out it goes. Even then, it would depend, because defining the diameter of the oort cloud would be rather like defining the diameter of a sneeze.

[denbot]

20. The suns gravity well extends 1-2 light years out..

So I’d say it was a “hit”.

[paleotn]

8. Similar to the Nemesis hypothosis.

A hypothetical dwarf companion to our sun that periodically stirs up the Oort cloud, causing comet showers and periodic mass extinctions on earth. But so far, no definitive evidence that it exists. Like Scholz's, passing stars can accomplish the same and are more likely culprits.

[dembotoz]

9. red dwarf....explains a lot

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/red-dwarf/265235/red-dwarf-20-essential-episodes

[EX500rider]

18. Yep..

[VMA131Marine]

32. What a guy!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Fascinating. Thanks for posting. . . . nt

[The_jackalope]

17. The same approximate time as the Toba Catastrophe? nt

[greyl]

19. Humanity being a few million years old, 70,000 yrs ago is late.

Even when specifying "modern humans" (homo sapiens sapiens) in the first paragraph, 70,000 years ago wasn't early.

[mpcamb]

21. Right. "Lucy" is 100,000 years old, so what happened to climate as a result?

70,000 yrs is maybe pre-human but a lot of the planet's condition wouldn't have been too different.

[greyl]

22. But 70,000 yrs ago is not pre-human. nt

[mpcamb]

23. I don't wanna get into an event over what's human and what's not.

My point is, if it was a big event, there might be climatic evidence.

[greyl]

25. Okay, you might be talking about civilization, not humanity at large, correct?

(For the record, the genus "homo" is all human.)

Edit: I also might be misinterpreting your post.

[mpcamb]

27. So, if we're getting into what's humanoid, hell, maybe Lucy'd vote better than a lot of US Reps.

But that's probably off topic. What I meant in the original post was if this was an major event in the solar system, what, if any, change was there concurrent with it?

[greyl]

28. Gotcha! Good question. nt

[miyazaki]

24. Blood Star of the Neanderthals

Read about this three years ago:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/18/red_dwarf_visited_our_solar_system_70000_years_ago/

[OhZone]

29. So it's not fake news -

it's late news.

[miyazaki]

30. Ya, 70,000 years late.

[Bucky]

31. Hey, journalists should check their sources before running a story

Getting it right is more important than getting it first

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. Locking - the host feel this is not important news

being a confirmation of something first suggested 3 years ago, and of limited consequence. Perhaps better discussed in the Science group, or GD. Thanks.