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Astronomy

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    $\begingroup$ I imagine if it had similar mass to the sun and passed that close, there would be some serious (or at least detectable) perturbations in the planetary orbits. This doesn't address your question about detecting radiation, so it's a comment, not an answer. $\endgroup$
    – Mike Harris
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 14:10
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    $\begingroup$ I would think that the WISE survey would observe it by gravitational lensing as well, considerably before it reached 1/2 light year. That also doesn't answer the question. $\endgroup$
    – userLTK
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 18:14
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, @MikeHarris, at half a light year the effect on the planets would be 64x that of Alpha Centauri, based on a crude 1/r^2 argument. I think any effect would be pretty subtle. $\endgroup$
    – Mark Foskey
    Commented Oct 8, 2018 at 0:36