I tried a similar experiment: a 0.91 solar mass star passing within about 3 AU of the sun at low velocity.
Earth ended up at an eccentricity of 0.10, which would most likely cause mass extinctions on its own, but much more worrying are Mars (which ended up on an earth-crossing orbit) and Jupiter (on a highly eccentric orbit with an sMA of 2.60 AU. Earth would theoretically be damaged but inhabitable by a few hundred years after the incident, but would subsequently be sterilized by impacts with material from the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. In addition, in the next several million years Earth would run a serious risk of being ejected from the system or removed from the habitable zone by gravitational interactions with Jupiter, as would the other inner planets with the possible exception of Mercury.
Europa may also be sterilized by impacts, but Jupiter's new orbit may open up the possibility of surface water on its moons near perhelion.
Saturn and Uranus survived, at least for the moment, but are on eccentric, highly inclined orbits at about the same distance from the sun. If the two interact, the result will most likely be Uranus being flung into a distance orbit or outright ejected from the system by either Saturn or Jupiter.
Just as most of the damage from a hurricane comes from flooding, not from the winds themselves, it seems rogue stars would primarily affect a planetary system by disrupting the orbits of gas giants.
Neptune, Ceres, and much of the asteroid and Kuiper belt were flung into interstellar space. Significant portions of the kuiper belt, possibly including dwarf planets, were captured by the rogue star.
Topic: Rogue Star in Solar System (Read 3244 times)
