Alien star passed through solar system 70,000 years ago

An artist's impression of the star
(Image credit: Michael Osadciw/University of Rochester)

70,000 years may sound like a long time, but for the solar system, it's like it was yesterday.

Scientists are just now learning about Scholz's star, a red dwarf that passed through our solar system about 70,000 years ago, along with a brown dwarf. In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists at the University of Rochester in New York explain that the star likely passed through the Oort Cloud at the edge of our solar system — the closest that any known star has come.

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Meghan DeMaria

Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.