Did our Sun capture alien worlds?

Did our Sun capture alien worlds?

Close encounter may explain some objects beyond Neptune

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.
The study, which used a supercomputer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was published in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Nature by physicist Ben Bromley of the University of Utah and astronomer Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.

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<a href="http://www.physorg.com/news2193.html">Did our Sun capture alien worlds?</a> Close encounter may explain some objects beyond Neptune 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. The study, which used a supercomputer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was published in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Nature by physicist Ben Bromley of the University of Utah and astronomer Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.