HD 7977 Archives

Long period comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) over the Pacific ocean, as imaged from Paranal Observatory in 2007. Credit: ESO/Sebastian Deiries

Long-Period Comets’ Orbits Reflect Close Passage by Star HD 7977

by Keith CowingJune 26, 2026June 26, 2026

The Gaia mission has allowed researchers to understand the motions of stars like never before, even revealing possible interactions between our Solar System and nearby stars.

The standard deviation of Earth’s orbital eccentricity is plotted against time for 100 back-integrations of solar system clones. Four batches of solar system simulations are run. Two only consider the Sun, its eight planets, and Pluto (blue lines), and the other two (orange lines) also include 5 large asteroids: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, Iris, and Bamberga. Half of our batches also perturb the solar system with passing field stars (dashed lines), while the others do not include this perturbation (solid lines). -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

Passing Stars As An Important Driver of Paleoclimate And The Solar System’s Orbital Evolution

by Keith CowingFebruary 15, 2024February 15, 2024

Reconstructions of the paleoclimate indicate that ancient climatic fluctuations on Earth are often correlated with variations in its orbital elements.