Sedna and the Oort Cloud Around a Migrating Sun

TL;DR

This study uses simulations to explore how the Sun's migration through the Milky Way affects the structure of the Oort Cloud, revealing that stellar encounters and galactic history significantly influence its formation and characteristics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the Sun's galactic migration impacts Oort Cloud formation, highlighting the role of stellar encounters and variability in the cloud's structure, which was previously underestimated.

Findings

Sedna's orbit may be part of the classical Oort Cloud.

Stellar encounters are crucial in shaping the Oort Cloud's inner edge.

The Oort Cloud's properties vary with the Sun's galactic orbit, often differing from fixed-environment models.

Abstract

Recent numerical simulations have demonstrated that the Sun's dynamical history within the Milky Way may be much more complex than that suggested by its current low peculiar velocity. In particular, the Sun may have radially migrated through the galactic disk by up to 5-6 kpc. This has important ramifications for the structure of the Oort Cloud, as it means that the solar system may have experienced tidal and stellar perturbations that were significantly different from its current local galactic environment. To characterize the effects of solar migration within the Milky Way, we use direct numerical simulations to model the formation of an Oort Cloud around stars that end up on solar-type orbits in a galactic-scale simulation of a Milky Way-like disk formation. Surprisingly, our simulations indicate that Sedna's orbit may belong to the classical Oort Cloud. Contrary to previous understanding, we show that field star encounters play a pivotal role in setting the Oort Cloud's extreme inner edge, and due to their stochastic nature this inner edge sometimes extends to Sedna's orbit. The Sun's galactic migration heightens the chance of powerful stellar passages, and Sedna production occurs around ~20-30% of the solar-like stars we study. Considering the entire Oort Cloud, we find its median distance depends on the minimum galactocentric distance attained during the Sun's orbital history. The inner edge also shows a similar dependence but with increased scatter due to the effects of powerful stellar encounters. Both of these Oort Cloud parameters can vary by an order of magnitude and are usually overestimated by an Oort Cloud formation model that assumes a fixed galactic environment. In addition, the amount of material trapped in outer Oort Cloud orbits can be extremely low and may present difficulties for models of Oort Cloud formation and long-period comet production.