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There Could Be Captured Planets in the Oort Cloud (www.universetoday.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Can you imagine the scientific buzz if we were to identify and send a lander to such a captured world? We're already pretty familiar with the type of matter in our own solar system, but something that formed in another star region could display very different characteristics. It would also be our first glimpse of what a truly alien world really looks like.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think the material in the Oort cloud is from our solar system, not from another

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Given the dynamics of the galaxy and the early solar system, there is about a 7% chance that our solar system has a captured ice giant planet in the Oort cloud

So if there is a planet at the edge of the solar system, it is more likely to be an adopted child rather than one of the Sun’s offspring. It’s still most likely that the Oort Cloud has no large worlds, but this study shows that planetary systems don’t always form in isolation, and there are plenty of star systems that are likely blended families.

The article talks about both :)