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A GAIA Revised Oort Cloud Encounter with Gliese 710

Received: 27 October 2016     Accepted: 9 November 2016     Published: 12 December 2016
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Abstract

The encounter between Gliese 710 and the solar system is re-examined in light of the newly published parallax and proper motion measurements within the GAIA data 1 release. The up-dated astrometric parameters are found to be significantly different from those implicated by the earlier Hipparcos Catalog and the revised encounter will see GL 710 pass some 5 times closer to the Sun than previously indicated. The closest encounter distance is now found to be 0.064  0.020 pc at a time 1.36  0.12 million years from the present. There is now a 100% certainty that GL 710 will pass through the outer boundary of the Oort cloud, and it will possibly pass as close as 5200 AU to the Sun, indicating the potential for non-negligible gravitational perturbations of those cometary nuclei located close to the inner boundary of the Oort cloud. The revised encounter conditions indicate that a relatively strong cometary shower is likely within the inner solar system, although how this will modify the terrestrial impact probability remains unclear. We find that GL 710 might be expected to capture and accrete several thousands of cometary nuclei as it moves through the Oort cloud, and such impacts can be expected to drive anomalous flare activity. We additionally find that GL 710 will quite likely trigger sublimation-driven outgassing from cometary nuclei situated within a few astronomical units of its path across the Oort cloud.

Published in American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Volume 4, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajaa.20160406.13
Page(s) 83-88
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Gliese 710, GAIA Data 1 Release, Flare Activity, Oort Cloud, Cometary Impacts

References
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[19] Dones, L., Weissman, P., Levison, H., and Duncan, M. 2004. Oort cloud formation and dynamics. In Star Formation in the Interstellar Medium: in honour of David Hollenbach, Chris McKee and Frank Shu. ASP Conference Series, volume 323.
[20] Howe, A., and Rafikov, R. 2014. Probing Oort cloud and local interstellar medium properties via dust produced in cometary collisions. Ap. J. 781, article 52.
[21] Andrews, A. 1991. Investigation of micro-flaring and secular quasi-periodic variations in dMe flare stars. Astron. Astrophys. 245, 219-231.
[22] Beech, M. 2011. Exploring alpha-Centauri: from planets, to a cometary cloud, and impact flares on Proxima. The Observatory, 131, 212-224.
[23] Brown, J., Carlson, R., and Toner, M. 2015. Destruction and observational signatures of sun-impacting comets. Ap. J. 807, article 165.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Martin Beech, Lowell Peltier. (2016). A GAIA Revised Oort Cloud Encounter with Gliese 710. American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 4(6), 83-88. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20160406.13

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    ACS Style

    Martin Beech; Lowell Peltier. A GAIA Revised Oort Cloud Encounter with Gliese 710. Am. J. Astron. Astrophys. 2016, 4(6), 83-88. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20160406.13

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    AMA Style

    Martin Beech, Lowell Peltier. A GAIA Revised Oort Cloud Encounter with Gliese 710. Am J Astron Astrophys. 2016;4(6):83-88. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20160406.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajaa.20160406.13,
      author = {Martin Beech and Lowell Peltier},
      title = {A GAIA Revised Oort Cloud Encounter with Gliese 710},
      journal = {American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics},
      volume = {4},
      number = {6},
      pages = {83-88},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajaa.20160406.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20160406.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajaa.20160406.13},
      abstract = {The encounter between Gliese 710 and the solar system is re-examined in light of the newly published parallax and proper motion measurements within the GAIA data 1 release. The up-dated astrometric parameters are found to be significantly different from those implicated by the earlier Hipparcos Catalog and the revised encounter will see GL 710 pass some 5 times closer to the Sun than previously indicated. The closest encounter distance is now found to be 0.064  0.020 pc at a time 1.36  0.12 million years from the present. There is now a 100% certainty that GL 710 will pass through the outer boundary of the Oort cloud, and it will possibly pass as close as 5200 AU to the Sun, indicating the potential for non-negligible gravitational perturbations of those cometary nuclei located close to the inner boundary of the Oort cloud. The revised encounter conditions indicate that a relatively strong cometary shower is likely within the inner solar system, although how this will modify the terrestrial impact probability remains unclear. We find that GL 710 might be expected to capture and accrete several thousands of cometary nuclei as it moves through the Oort cloud, and such impacts can be expected to drive anomalous flare activity. We additionally find that GL 710 will quite likely trigger sublimation-driven outgassing from cometary nuclei situated within a few astronomical units of its path across the Oort cloud.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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    AU  - Martin Beech
    AU  - Lowell Peltier
    Y1  - 2016/12/12
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    T2  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
    JF  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
    JO  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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    AB  - The encounter between Gliese 710 and the solar system is re-examined in light of the newly published parallax and proper motion measurements within the GAIA data 1 release. The up-dated astrometric parameters are found to be significantly different from those implicated by the earlier Hipparcos Catalog and the revised encounter will see GL 710 pass some 5 times closer to the Sun than previously indicated. The closest encounter distance is now found to be 0.064  0.020 pc at a time 1.36  0.12 million years from the present. There is now a 100% certainty that GL 710 will pass through the outer boundary of the Oort cloud, and it will possibly pass as close as 5200 AU to the Sun, indicating the potential for non-negligible gravitational perturbations of those cometary nuclei located close to the inner boundary of the Oort cloud. The revised encounter conditions indicate that a relatively strong cometary shower is likely within the inner solar system, although how this will modify the terrestrial impact probability remains unclear. We find that GL 710 might be expected to capture and accrete several thousands of cometary nuclei as it moves through the Oort cloud, and such impacts can be expected to drive anomalous flare activity. We additionally find that GL 710 will quite likely trigger sublimation-driven outgassing from cometary nuclei situated within a few astronomical units of its path across the Oort cloud.
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Author Information
  • Campion College, University of Regina, Regina, Canada

  • Department of Physics, University of Regina, Regina, Canada

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