A new study suggests that a massive interstellar object, possibly eight times the mass of Jupiter, may have passed close to the sun about four billion years ago, disrupting the orbits of the giant planets in our solar system. This encounter could explain the atypical orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which deviate from the expected circular arrangements. The research involved extensive simulations and posits that such an interstellar event is plausible given the billions of sun-like stars existing in the universe.
This object would have come within 1.69 astronomical units of the sun, which is only slightly farther than the distance between the sun and Mars.
According to the ruling theory of how our solar system formed, each planet's orbit should be arranged in concentric circles around the sun that all lie on the same plane.
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