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Why is originating outside the solar system the only explanation for a retrograde orbit? Couldn't a close encounter or several with other bodies reverse it's di
by flukus 8y ago
Why is originating outside the solar system the only explanation for a retrograde orbit? Couldn't a close encounter or several with other bodies reverse it's direction around the sun?
- zeristor 8y agoI imagine the probability of that happening would be less than capturing a wandering body.
- SideburnsOfDoom 8y ago> Why is originating outside the solar system the only explanation for a retrograde orbit? From TFA: > “But at the beginning of this investigation, we did not suspect BZ to be of interstellar origin,” he explained. “We developed a new method that allows us to follow the asteroid back in time to see which part of the solar system it came from.” > But as far back as they could trace the jigsaw parts of the solar system — rocks and planets swirling and mixing — all the way to its birth, 4.5 billion years ago, BZ kept going around the same wrong way. Which meant the asteroid could not have been part of the swirling cloud of dust and gas from which the sun and planets originally condensed so long ago. In other words: in simulation runs, extrasolar was the only explanation for this retrograde orbit.
- slavik81 8y agoThat sounds a bit like starting with a smoothie and running the blender in reverse until the starberries put themselves back together. The n-body problem is chaotic and 4.5By is a long time. It's incredible. edit: The actual paper is very readable and very interesting. Props to the NYT for linking it.
- richmarr 8y agoIt's more like putting berries into the blender and running it to see how often a berry hits you in the eye. They found that coplanar planets and coplanar debris statistically won't produce this specific type of (high inclination) orbit.