When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An illustration of the local bubble, which surrounds our solar system. An interstellar cloud of ...

Nearly 4.5 million years ago, two enormous, blazing stars swung close to the solar system. They did not touch the sun, but they came close enough to leave a permanent mark on the thin mist of gas that ...

Nearly 4.5 million years ago, two large, hot stars brushed tantalizingly close to Earth’s sun. They left behind a trace in the clouds of gas and dust that swirl just beyond our solar system—almost ...

Long before humans walked the Earth, your solar system had a brush with two blazing blue stars that passed surprisingly close by. Nearly 4.4 million years ago, they swept past at a distance of only ...

Roughly 4.5 million years ago, the sun passed remarkably close to two intensely bright stars whose radiation flooded nearby space — and the encounter left a ghostly scar that astronomers can still ...