LevelPegging
LevelPegging t1_irveanj wrote
Reply to The vast majority of the 150-400 billion stars in the Milky Way haven't been directly detected. Alpha Centauri is the nearest known star to Sol. What is the probability that there are nearer stars that remain undiscovered? by [deleted]
While finding newly undiscovered nearby stars is unlikely, there are wandering stars out there that pass by our solar system and for a brief moment they become the closest star. Scholz's star passed through the Oort cloud around 70,000 years ago, I believe at the time making it the closest star.
About 1.4 million years from now another, larger, star is on a course to pass through the Oort cloud which will cause major disruption and send thousands of comets hurtling into the inner solar system.
LevelPegging t1_irw6o3q wrote
Reply to comment by harbourwall in The vast majority of the 150-400 billion stars in the Milky Way haven't been directly detected. Alpha Centauri is the nearest known star to Sol. What is the probability that there are nearer stars that remain undiscovered? by [deleted]
I believe its impossible to tell whether it has its own satellites however I imagine it would have picked up something in its gravitational pull. It certainly would have flung a few rocks towards the inner solar system but it would take a million plus years before it reached the inner planets and become detectable.