The discovery of Interstellar Objects (ISOs) Oumuamua in 2017 and Comet Borisov in 2019 sparked a wave of curiosity among scientists and astronomy enthusiasts alike.

What were these objects? What are their origins? Regrettably, they traversed our Solar System too quickly for us to conduct in-depth studies. Yet, they revealed a significant phenomenon: materials from the Milky Way are traversing the galaxy.

While the precise origins of these ISOs remain a mystery, it is likely that many more exist outside our cosmic neighborhood. How many celestial bodies from neighboring star systems might be passing through our Solar System?

The Alpha Centauri (AC) system holds the title of our closest stellar neighbor and comprises three stars: Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, which form a binary system, alongside Proxima Centauri, a faint red dwarf. This entire system is moving towards us, presenting a unique opportunity to investigate how materials can traverse between different solar systems.

A forthcoming study in the Planetary Science Journal delves into the potential material exchange from AC to our Solar System and explores how much might already be present. The study is titled “A Case Study of Interstellar Material Delivery: Alpha Centauri.“

Authors Cole Greg and Paul Wiegert, both from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, conducted the research.

“Interstellar materials have been detected in our Solar System, yet their origins and the mechanisms of their transport remain unknown,” the authors note. “We present Alpha Centauri as a model for understanding the delivery of interstellar material to our Solar System.”

Estimated to be around five billion years old, Alpha Centauri is a mature star system believed to harbor planets. Typically, older star systems expel less material; however, the presence of multiple stars increases the chances of gravitational scattering from leftover planetesimals, similar to how asteroids and comets are expelled from our Solar System.

AC is currently moving towards us at a speed of 22 km/s (approximately 79,000 km per hour) and is expected to reach its closest point to our Solar System in about 28,000 years, at a distance of roughly 200,000 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. According to Greg and Wiegert, materials ejected from Alpha Centauri can indeed reach us, with some already here.

There is a potential realization of significant volumes of material originating from AC. The researchers estimate that there could be around 1 million Alpha Centauri particles larger than 100 meters in the Oort Cloud surrounding our Solar System.

However, detecting these objects poses a challenge. Most are presumed to be located far beyond the Sun’s reach within the Oort Cloud. The researchers clarify that “the observable fraction of such bodies remains low,” with only a one-in-a-million chance that one lies within 10 AU of the Sun.

This research illustrates that significant quantities of material from Alpha Centauri may indeed exist within our reach. The authors emphasize that while current detection capabilities for these particles are limited, the potential for discovery remains high.

Additionally, small particles that may manifest as meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere are less likely to arrive, as they encounter numerous forces, including magnetic fields and interactions with the interstellar medium that can lead to their destruction.

The study highlights that tiny particles of around 3.30 micrometers in diameter might survive the journey across the interstellar medium, though they remain undetectable by conventional meteor radar systems, such as the Zephyr Meteor Radar Network.

Significantly, the findings indicate that while some material can traverse vast distances and reach our Solar System, understanding the ejective processes from Alpha Centauri is inherently fraught with uncertainty, limiting our comprehension of this phenomenon.

The research predicts that approximately ten particles from Alpha Centauri currently enter Earth’s atmosphere as detectable meteors, with that figure projected to increase tenfold over the next 28,000 years.

This research exemplifies how our Solar System is interlinked with others, suggesting that there might be exchanges of materials that enhance our understanding of planetary formation processes.

If Alpha Centauri hosts exoplanets, the materials we detect could originate from the primordial discs that formed them, potentially providing insights without the need to traverse the significant distance separating us from this neighboring star system.

The authors conclude, “By deepening our understanding of the mechanisms behind material transfer from Alpha Centauri to the Solar System, we not only gain insights into interstellar transport but also explore the intricate relationships among stellar systems and the potential for material exchange throughout our galaxy.”

This article was first published by Universe Today. Read the original article.