Thrown rocks can return to the Solar System ✛ ✦

Original: "There and back again: the quasi-interstellar objects"
arXiv:2607.04216 · 2026-07-05 · CC BY 4.0 · 1 min
Comets and asteroids ejected from the Solar System can return millions of years later.

The Solar System races around the galactic circuit like a runner on a track, and occasionally throws rocks: comets, asteroids, and even crumbs – meteorites. Such a thrown rock doesn't disappear forever. Computer simulations show: one in a hundred trillion pieces returns each year, catching up to the runner with almost no lag.

These 'returnees' barely outpace the Sun — their speed is like a pedestrian's — and arrive from two narrow sectors. True guests from other stars rush faster and more uniformly. Amazingly, a rock ejected in the dinosaur era could return today — for 66 million years it barely fell behind, as if tethered by Newtonian gravity. Returnees are witnesses of the young Sun, galactic evolution, and the lives of other stars.

A rock ejected during the dinosaur era could return right now — it barely fell behind the Sun in 66 million years.

v_{\text{esc}} = \sqrt{\frac{2GM_\odot}{r}}
The minimum speed necessary for a body to overcome the Sun’s gravity and escape into interstellar space.
b = q \sqrt{1 + \frac{2GM_\odot}{q v_\infty^2}}
Determines the distance from the Sun at which the object will pass (q) for a given excess velocity v∞ and impact parameter b.
Scientists
Isaac NewtonJohn MichellRobert Hooke
Concepts
interstellar object young stellar object oort cloud solar system interstellar space exoplanet exomoon observable universe mass loss open cluster stellar objects planetary system mars asteroid belt satellite galaxy galactic halo rogue planet international space station super earth exoplanets around red dwarfs