Explaining Neptune's Eccentricity

Abstract

Early migration damped Neptune's eccentricity. Here, we assume that the damped value was much smaller than the value observed today, and show that the closest flyby of $\sim 0.1{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ star over $\sim 4.5\mathrm{Gyr}$ in the field, at a distance of $\sim 10^3\mathrm{AU}$ would explain the value of Neptune's eccentricity observed today.

2 pages, 1 figure; accepted for publication in RNAAS