For
the first time, astrophysicists have detected a star that appeared from the
same cloud of gas and dust as our own sun. Interestingly, there's a -small, but
not zero- chance that our related sun has planets warm enough to let life
evolve. For folks who have been seeing the rnew Cosmos series, this publication
couldn't have been timelier. For instance Neil deGrasse Tyson just illustrated
in a recent episode of Cosmos, our home star, alongside with others, made in a
gigantic cloud of gas and dust called a nebula. Therefore, it must have
supposed "stellar siblings" moving around somewhere fairly near, but
to date none have ever been discovered. Well, up until now.
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| Image Credit: ESO/L. Calcada. |
The
discovered star, HD 162826, was recognized by Ivan Ramirez and his crew at the
University of Texas at Austin. It's positioned about 110 light-years away in
the constellation of Hercules. HD 162826 is about 15% more massive than our own
sun and it is not observable to the naked eye. Ivan Ramirez's crew was capable
to match this star to our own sun by following up on 30 conceivable candidates.
The stargazers used high-resolution spectroscopy to get an enhanced
understanding of the chemical make-up of these 30 stars. They also studied the
orbits of these candidates, specifically where they have been and where they
are moving in the tracks about the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Mutually the
orbital calculations and chemical analysis pointed the field of candidates to
just one and it was HD 162826.
Image Credit: ESO/L. Calcada.
This
specific star, which has been observed and studied for the improved part of 15
years, does not look to have any immense planets circling close to it. Nor does
a Jupiter-like planet exist in at the utmost stretches of this solar system.
But readings to date have not ruled out the existence of smaller earthly
planets. According to Ivan Ramirez, there is possibility, "small, but not
zero," that these stellar brotherly stars could host planets that host
life.
Ivan
Ramirez guesses that when these stars were developing in the birth group,
impacts could have knocked masses off of planets, and these remains could have
voyaged between solar systems, maybe bringing basic life to Earth. "So it
could be argued that solar siblings are key candidates in the search for
extraterrestrial life," Ramirez mentioned in an announcement.