Was The Sun Born In A Massive Cluster?
Donald Dukes, Mark R. Krumholz

TL;DR
This study reevaluates the likelihood of the Sun forming in a massive star cluster, finding that the probability of disruptive stellar encounters is low across various cluster sizes, aligning with meteoritic evidence of supernova exposure.
Contribution
The paper introduces velocity-dependent cross sections and realistic cluster lifetimes into simulations, challenging previous assumptions about the Sun's birth environment.
Findings
Disruption probability decreases with cluster mass.
Massive clusters are consistent with Solar System preservation.
Revised models reconcile dynamical limits with meteoritic evidence.
Abstract
A number of authors have argued that the Sun must have been born in a cluster of no more than about 1000 stars, on the basis that, in a larger cluster, close encounters between the Sun and other stars would have truncated the outer Solar System or excited the outer planets into eccentric orbits. However, this dynamical limit is in tension with meteoritic evidence that the Solar System was exposed to a nearby supernova during or shortly after its formation; a 1000-star cluster is much too small for supernova contamination to be likely. In this paper we revisit the dynamical limit in the light of improved observations of the properties of young clusters. We use a series of scattering simulations to measure the velocity-dependent cross-section for disruption of the outer Solar System by stellar encounters, and use this cross-section to compute the probability of a disruptive encounter as a…
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