HD 7977 and its possible influence on Solar System bodies
arXiv:2312.11124 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348995
Abstract
In the latest Gaia third data release one can find extremely small proper motion components for the star HD 7977. This, together with the radial velocity measurement lead to the conclusion that this star passed very close to the Sun in the recent past. Such a very close approach of a one solar mass star must result in noticeable changes in the motion of all Solar System bodies, especially those on less tight orbits, namely long-period comets (LPCs) and Kuiper belt objects. We estimate and present these effects. Our current knowledge on the stellar surroundings of the Sun found in the latest Gaia catalogues allowed us to perform numerical integrations and prepare a list of potential stellar perturbers of LPCs. We use this list, made available in the StePPeD database. To study the past motion of LPCs under the simultaneous action of the Galactic potential and passing stars, we use precise original cometary orbits taken from the current CODE catalogue. We examine the reliability of the extremely small proper motion of HD 7977 concluding that this star can be an unresolved binary but according to the astrometry covering more than a century, the current Gaia results cannot be ruled out. We present the parameters of a very close passage of this star near the Sun. We also show examples of the strong influence of this passage on the past motion of some LPCs. We also discuss the possible influence of this perturber on other Solar System bodies. It is possible that 2.47 Myr ago the one solar mass star HD 7977 passed as close as one thousand au from the Sun. Such an event constitutes a kind of dynamical horizon for all studies of the past Solar System bodies' dynamics.
15 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables, submitted to A&A
References in corpus (42)
- Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
- The Gaia mission
- Gaia Data Release 3: Summary of the content and survey properties
- The SIMBAD astronomical database
- Estimating distances from parallaxes. V: Geometric and photogeometric distances to 1.47 billion stars in Gaia Early Data Release 3
- The VizieR database of Astronomical Catalogues
- Gaia Early Data Release 3: The astrometric solution
- The Fourth US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC4)
- REBOUND: An open-source multi-purpose N-body code for collisional dynamics
- Gaia Early Data Release 3: Parallax bias versus magnitude, colour, and position
- The PPMXL catalog of positions and proper motions on the ICRS. Combining USNO-B1.0 and 2MASS
- Gaia Data Release 2: using Gaia parallaxes
- A million binaries from Gaia eDR3: sample selection and validation of Gaia parallax uncertainties
- Gaia Data Release 3 Properties and validation of the radial velocities
- The Hipparcos-Gaia Catalog of Accelerations: Gaia EDR3 Edition
- Gaia Data Release 3: Stellar multiplicity, a teaser for the hidden treasure
- Photo-astrometric distances, extinctions, and astrophysical parameters for Gaia EDR3 stars brighter than G=18.5
- Gaia Data Release 3: Astrophysical parameters inference system (Apsis) I -- methods and content overview
- Gaia Data Release 3: Analysis of the Gaia BP/RP spectra using the General Stellar Parameterizer from Photometry
- PPM-Extended (PPMX) - a catalogue of positions and proper motions
- Gaia Data Release 3: Apsis II -- Stellar Parameters
- Gaia Data Release 3. Astrometric binary star processing
- The First U.S. Naval Observatory Robotic Astrometric Telescope Catalog (URAT1)
- Binary deviations from single object astrometry
- Gaia DR3: Apsis III -- Non-stellar content and source classification
- Characterizing and correcting the proper motion bias of the bright Gaia EDR3 sources
- New stellar encounters discovered in the second Gaia data release
- An estimation of the Gaia EDR3 parallax bias from stellar clusters and Magellanic Clouds data
- Oort spike comets with large perihelion distances
- 15000 Ellipsoidal Binary Candidates in TESS: Orbital Periods, Binary Fraction, and Tertiary Companions
- Visual binary stars with known orbits in Gaia EDR3
- Stars that approach within one parsec of the Sun: New and more accurate encounters identified in Gaia Data Release 3
- On the long-term stability of the Solar System in the presence of weak perturbations from stellar flybys
- Near-parabolic comets observed in 2006-2010. The individualized approach to 1/a-determination and the new distribution of original and future orbits
- The Catalogue of Cometary Orbits and their Dynamical Evolution
- The influence of individual stars on the long-term dynamics of comets C/2014 UN271 and C/2017 K2
- A surprise in the updated list of stellar perturbers of long period comets motion
- Important stellar perturbers found during the StePPeD database update based on Gaia EDR3 data
- Oort Cloud Comets Discovered Far from the Sun
- HiFLEx -- a highly flexible package to reduce cross-dispersed echelle spectra
- Search for Close Stellar Encounters with the Solar System Based on Data from the Gaia DR3 Catalogue
- Rendez-vous with massive interstellar objects, as triggers of destabilisation