Effect of Different Stellar Galactic Environments on Planetary Discs I: The Solar Neighbourhood and the Birth Cloud of the Sun

TL;DR

This study models stellar trajectories in the Solar neighbourhood to assess their impact on the Solar system and its formation environment, finding that close stellar encounters are rare but can influence planetary disk dynamics.

Contribution

It provides detailed simulations of stellar flybys using a full Galactic potential and explores their effects on the Solar system and its birth cloud, including the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud.

Findings

Gliese 710 will approach within 0.34 pc in 1.36 Myr

Flybys similar to Gliese 710 have negligible effects on the Solar system

Galactic environments can produce close encounters within 200 AU affecting planetary formation

Abstract

We have computed trajectories, distances and times of closest approaches to the Sun by stars in the Solar neighbourhood with known position, radial velocity and proper motions. For this purpose we have used a full potential model of the Galaxy that reproduces the local z-force, the Oort constants, the local escape velocity, and the rotation curve of the Galaxy. From our sample we constructed initial conditions, within observational uncertainties, with a Monte Carlo scheme for the twelve most suspicious candidates because of their small tangential motion. We find that the star Gliese 710 will have the closest approach to the Sun, with a distance of approximately 0.34 pc at 1.36 Myr in the future. We show that the effect of a flyby with the characteristics of Gliese 710 on a 100 AU test particle disk representing the Solar system is negligible. However, since there is a lack of 6D data for a large percentage of stars in the Solar neighbourhood, closer approaches may exist. We calculate parameters of passing stars that would cause noticeable effects on the Solar disk. Regarding the birth cloud of the Sun, we performed experiments to reproduce roughly the observed orbital parameters such as eccentricities and inclinations of the Kuiper Belt. It is known now that in Galactic environments, such as stellar formation regions, the stellar densities of new born stars, are high enough to produce close encounters within 200 AU. Moreover, in these Galactic environments, the velocity dispersion is relatively low, typically approximately 1-3 km s-1.We find that with a velocity dispersion of approximately 1 km s-1 and an approach distance of about 150 AU, typical of these regions, we obtain approximately the eccentricities and inclinations seen in the current Solar system. Simple analytical calculations of stellar encounters effects on the Oort cloud are presented.