# Have we ever witnessed a solas system collision?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-witnessed-a-solas-system-collision/681105>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 11, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-witnessed-a-solas-system-collision/681105 "2014-02-11T23:54:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![IMfez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f07891/32.png) [@IMfez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IMfez)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-witnessed-a-solas-system-collision/681105/1 "2014-02-11T23:54:16Z")

</div>

I know collisions between solar systems are very rare events. Have our telescopes ever bore witness to such events?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-witnessed-a-solas-system-collision/681105/2 "2014-02-12T00:12:40Z")

</div>

You might have to define what you mean by “collision of a solar system.” Being virtually all empty space, two solar systems could easily go _through_ each other. The only likely effect would be gravitational issues that could cause planets to shift orbit or be flung out of the system altogether.

Have we ever seen anything like that? Not to my knowledge. We wouldn’t be able to see the planets anyway, but two stars making such a close approach would be an interesting anomaly, assuming we don’t assume it’s a binary system. We could tell the difference between binaries and near-misses, but only if we had enough data over time.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-witnessed-a-solas-system-collision/681105/3 "2014-02-12T00:39:41Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> We could tell the difference between binaries and near-misses, but only if we had enough data over time.

It might not take much data or time, depending on the angles involved. If the relative velocity of the stars is close to our line of sight, we could determine the speeds, and the fact that the stars aren’t bound to each other, just from a single Doppler measurement.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-witnessed-a-solas-system-collision/681105/4 "2014-02-12T00:47:09Z")

</div>

[Presumably, there are some colliding systems in these shots.](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=643&q=colliding+galaxies&oq=colliding&gs_l=img.1.0.0l10.1608.5663.0.9058.9.8.0.1.1.0.157.1061.0j8.8.0....0...1ac.1.35.img..0.9.1077.3CqJjUbU_-g)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-witnessed-a-solas-system-collision/681105/5 "2014-02-12T01:16:20Z")

</div>

The link was to images of galaxy collisions.

But the only detailed collision was the “large gas cloud into a super massive black hole” of 2010. Just imagine it was a gas giant star. Similar thing would occur.  
Its hard enough to get an image of exoplanets.  
[https://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/11/13/huge-exoplanet-news-items-pictures/](https://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/11/13/huge-exoplanet-news-items-pictures/)