Close encounters with the Death Star: Interactions between collapsed bodies and the Solar System

TL;DR

This study models close encounters between the Solar System and stellar remnants like black holes and neutron stars, exploring potential disruptions and captures of planets, and assessing the stability of resulting planetary systems.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed simulations of Solar System interactions with stellar remnants, revealing possible planetary captures and long-term stability outcomes.

Findings

Distribution of encounter outcomes including system disruption and planetary capture

Conditions under which planets are captured by black holes or neutron stars

Long-term stability analysis of captured planetary systems

Abstract

Aims: We aim to investigate the consequences of a fast massive stellar remnant - a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS) - encountering a planetary system. Methods: We modelled a close encounter between the actual Solar System (SS) and a $2\,M_\odot$ NS and a $10\,M_\odot$ BH, using a few-body symplectic integrator. We used a range of impact parameters, orbital phases at the start of the simulation derived from the current SS orbital parameters, encounter velocities, and incidence angles relative to the plane of the SS. Results: We give the distribution of possible outcomes, such as when the SS remains bound, when it suffers a partial or complete disruption, and in which cases the intruder is able to capture one or more planets, yielding planetary systems around a BH or a NS. We also show examples of the long-term stability of the captured planetary systems.