Letter to the Editor

Close encounters with the Death Star: Interactions between collapsed bodies and the Solar System

¹ Indiana University, Department of Astronomy, Swain Hall West, 727 E 3rd Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
e-mail: vpavlik@iu.edu
² Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Boční II 1401, 141 31 Prague 4, Czech Republic
³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, Pisa 6127, Italy
⁴ INFN, Sezione di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, Pisa 6127, Italy

Received: 30 January 2021
Accepted: 22 March 2021

Abstract

Aims. We aim to investigate the consequences of a fast massive stellar remnant – a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS) – encountering a planetary system.

Methods. We modelled a close encounter between the actual Solar System (SS) and a 2 M_⊙ NS and a 10 M_⊙ BH, using a few-body symplectic integrator. We used a range of impact parameters, orbital phases at the start of the simulation derived from the current SS orbital parameters, encounter velocities, and incidence angles relative to the plane of the SS.

Results. We give the distribution of possible outcomes, such as when the SS remains bound, when it suffers a partial or complete disruption, and in which cases the intruder is able to capture one or more planets, yielding planetary systems around a BH or a NS. We also show examples of the long-term stability of the captured planetary systems.