Discovering the 'culprit' caused the comet to crash into Earth

European astronomers have just published a surprising new study of some strange stars near the Sun. The attraction of these stars may be the cause of future comet rains on Earth.

The study is the work of the European aerospace agency (ESA). ESA used data from Gaia satellites to track the movement of more than 300,000 stars near the Sun as well as predict their fate for another 5 million years. Data on the 1 billion stars Gaia satellite collected after the first 14 months of its launch into space were released in September 2016.

Strange stars may cause comets to crash into Earth.

Combining details of position, precise movement, parallax movement from Gaia data and the radial velocity of similar constellations in the other star classification category, the team determined the interval how stars get closer to the Sun in the past 5 million years and the next 5 million years.

By calculating the distance when a star moves across the solar system, astronomers have identified the number of celestial bodies that can disturb the cloud of the Oort nebula (a cloud of gas dust, comets and many objects freeze around the solar system), and pave the way for comets to cross this cloud to enter the solar system.

Parallax

Parallax is "the best way to get distance in astronomy". The parallax is said to be a "gold standard" to measure distance because it is not related to physics, but only based on geometry.

This method is based on measuring the two corners and the bottom edge of a triangle formed by the star, the Earth on one side of the orbit, and the Earth in the position of six months later on the other side of the orbit.

According to the ESA report, of the 300,000 stars studied, 97 stars will fly 150 trillion km from the Sun, 16 stars fly closer to a distance of 60 trillion km. This means they can break the Oort cloud. In fact, the famous star Gliese 710 is on the journey to cross the cloud of Oort to enter the solar system.

Gliese 710 is a dwarf whose mass equals 61% of the mass of the Sun. It is estimated that from a data source before Gaia, Gliese 710 can fly 3.1-13.6 trillion kilometers from the Sun. However, the latest figures confirm that this distance may be closer to 1.5-2.3 trillion kilometers in 1.3 million years.

When it is closest to the Sun, Gliese 710 will be the brightest object in the night sky, moving at speeds of up to 50 thousand km / h and will disturb the Oort cloud before hitting the solar system.

Gliese's "tango dance" to the Sun then triggers the "falling" comet rains into the solar system, crashing into Earth and other planets.

Gaia satellite of the European aerospace agency.

In addition, the study also estimates the rate of "encounters" between stars and the Sun in 5 million and 5 million years. Using a computer model to calculate both stars that have not been observed and classified, scientists estimate that there will be 550 times when strange stars fly across the solar system and about 150 trillion from the Sun. kilometer. In particular, there will be 20 times to reach 30 trillion km distance.

Gaia satellite

ESA's Gaia space probe is put into orbit by Soyuz-STB-Fregat rocket on December 20, 2013. In 5 years of operation, satellites have a mission to study the position, distance, movement, chemical composition and brightness of billions of stars in the Milky Way.

The data collected from Gaia will help scientists create 3D maps of the Milky Way to study the order of stellar arrangements. Data containing information of more than 1 billion stars in Gaia's first 14 months was announced in September last year (2016).

This is the data source used by European astronomers to carry out the study.