Computer simulations show a close encounter with a passing star about 4 billion years ago may have given our solar system its abrupt edge and put
small, alien worlds into distant orbits around our sun.
www.spacedaily.com...
Bromley and Kenyon simulated what would have happened if our sun and another star in our Milky Way galaxy had passed a relatively close 14 billion to
19 billion miles from each other a few hundred million years after our solar system formed.
At that time, our solar system was a swirling "planetary disk" of gas, dust and rocks, with planets newly formed from the smaller materials.
Astronomers have been searching for years for extrasolar planets, or planets in other solar systems. Few considered the possibility that "the nearest
extrasolar planet might be right here in our solar system," says Kenyon.
Maybe this is the event that helped Earth be where it is today.
Surf
[edit on 12/2/2004 by surfup]