A close pass by a red dwarf star, and a note on interplanetary and interstellar distances

SelfAwarePatterns

First, in case you haven’t heard: 70,000 Years Ago, Another Star Flew by the Edge of the Solar System | RealClearScience.

According to an international team of astronomers, about 70,000 years ago a red dwarf star — nicknamed “Scholz’s star” for the astronomer who discovered it — passed by our solar system just 0.8 light years distant. In fact, 98% of the 10,000 simulations the team ran projected that the star’s path grazed the outer edges of the Oort Cloud, a region of space filled with icy planetesimals which marks the final boundary of our solar system.

…Scholz’s star is now twenty light years away and won’t be returning anytime soon. However, Dr. Coryn Bailer-Jones of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy calculates that we may receive another visitor in the distant future. Last December, Baller-Jones reported that the rogue star HIP 85605 may pass as close as .132…