The Case for an Early Solar Binary Companion

Abstract

We show that an equal-mass, temporary binary companion to the Sun in the solar birth cluster at a separation of $\sim 10^3\mathrm{AU}$ would have increased the likelihood of forming the observed population of outer Oort cloud objects and of capturing Planet Nine. In particular, the discovery of a captured origin for Planet Nine would favor our binary model by an order of magnitude relative to a lone stellar history. Our model predicts an overabundance of dwarf planets, discoverable by LSST, with similar orbits to Planet Nine, which would result from capture by the stellar binary.

arXiv comment5 pages, 2 figures; accepted to ApJL

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Oort cloud Ecology II: The chronology of the formation of the Oort cloud
• Encounters involving planetary systems in birth environments: the significant role of binaries
• Interstellar Objects Outnumber Solar System Objects in the Oort Cloud
• Inclination Excitation of Solar System Debris Disk due to Stellar Flybys
• Outer Solar System Perihelion Gap Formation Through Interactions with a Hypothetical Distant Giant Planet
• Dynamical Fates of S-Type Planetary Systems in Embedded Cluster Environments