posted on Dec, 19 2008 @ 04:37 AM
reply to post by WhiteWash
Well there's two primary ways that come to mind. One, Sol and another star began as orbiting accretion disks. In fact, the gravity of one could
affect the accretion process of the other. Two, Sol catches a smaller star and its planetary system into its orbit.
The second idea appeals more to me somehow. If our solar system was in a binary orbit with another star without our being able to observe it directly,
it would have to be a pretty small star--the smallest of red dwarfs even. Dim little suckers, and long lived. There are supposed millions upon
millions of them out there, wandering our galactic plane with us, too dim to register on our land or space based telescopes.
The planetary system of such a star might be no broader than two or three times the orbital reach of Jupiter's moons, which would allow it to pass
through Sol's orbital plane without hitting or even necessarily affecting much of anything. But that star would be dragging its own load of stuff
around, it's heliosphere, it's cloud of crap, it's comets and asteroids. Any one of these or any part of one of these could jump orbits and join
our own little family of debris.
Could also make an interesting theory for explaining how Neptune's pole got knocked atilt, if a red dwarf whipped by her one day close enough to
throw her off and tangle her moons into spaghetti orbits.
Well, it's fun speculating.