Answer 1:
This question is puzzling, and posed one of the
most controversial physics questions in the
twentieth century.
Let's look at the problem through Newtonian
mechanics. The idea of a second sun in our
solar system is very outrageous, so there are
either two ways it could work. The first is that
there is an incredibly small star orbiting our
Sun, but is so dense, and so close to the Sun, we
can't see it. This potentially could work if the
star was heavy enough to counteract the sun's
mass, and if it's distance away from the sun was
small enough that the two-star system could
effectively turn into the one star system. We want
it to look like a one-star system because that is
the system our planets' orbits follow. This was
hypothesized by many physicists in explaining the
strange orbit of the planet Mercury in our solar
system. The star was named Vulcan, but, due to
Einstein's relativity theories and recent
evidence, was found not to exist.
The next way this system could work is if there
exists, an incredibly far distance away from us,
some star orbiting our own sun. This could be true
if the star were far enough away at all times that
it had no considerable effect on the planets
motion. The star would act as a sort of "super"
comet, crashing into things and pulling with it
any smaller bodies trapped by its gravity. This
is a theory made to explain mass extinctions that
have occurred on Earth every 26 million years.
Similar to how the dinosaurs supposedly went
extinct, scientists say this star comes barrelling
in every 26 million years, and with it, bringing
mass destruction.
This is most likely as false as the above claim,
however, the fun part is we won't know the answer
until we see it happen with our own eyes! Click Here to return to the search form.
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