It's thought that somewhere out there, the Sun has a twin - born not just in the same stellar nursery, but an almost identical twin, a binary companion made of the same star-stuff. And astronomers think they might have just found it.
Located roughly 184 light-years away, it's called HD 186302, and it's almost certainly at least a long-lost sibling of our home star.
Aug 24, 2020 In its youth our solar system may have contained two suns, which could explain how it had the gravitational pull to capture the hypothetical Planet Nine. Solar system may have had a second sun. Nemesis was a hypothetical red dwarf or brown dwarf, originally postulated in 1984 to be orbiting the Sun at a distance of about 95,000 AU (1.5 light-years), somewhat beyond the Oort cloud, to explain a perceived cycle of mass extinctions in the geological record, which seem to occur more often at intervals of 26 million years.
Most stars are born in groups that can number in the thousands, in what are known as stellar nurseries - tremendously vast clouds of gas and dust, pushed into clumps that gradually collapse under their own weight, forming the very first stages of stars. The Sun's life is thought to have started this way, 4.57 billion years ago.
Eventually, the stars get flung out on their own into the galaxy - but most of them have at least one other companion. It's estimated up to 85 percent of all stars could be in binary pairs, or even triple or quadruple systems; and over 50 percent of all Sun-like stars are in binary pairs.
Our Sun is a solitary star, all on its ownsome, which makes it something of an oddball. But there's evidence to suggest that it did have a binary twin, once upon a time. Recent research suggests that most, if not all, stars are born with a binary twin.
(We already knew the Solar System is a total weirdo. The placement of the planets appears out of whack compared to other systems, and it's missing the most common planet in the galaxy, the super-Earth.)
So, if not for some cosmic event or quirk, Earth could have had two suns. But we don't. So maybe that twin is somewhere out there.
What we do know is that the Sun's siblings are definitely out there. They're just really hard to find, since there are so many stars in the Milky Way, and the Sun's siblings - as all stars do - have scattered widely.
To date, only a few candidates for solar siblings have been identified. But a team led by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) in Portugal went on the hunt equipped with better tools than previous searches, including a larger sample, chemical abundances of more elements, and more precise astrometric data, thanks to Gaia.
That's it, right there in the middle! Isn't it cool? (CDS Portal/Simbad)
And they found HD186302 - not just a stellar sibling, but a 'special' one, they said. It's uncannily similar to the Sun.
It's a G-type main-sequence star just a teeny tiny smidge bigger than the Sun, and around about the same surface temperature and luminosity. It also has extremely similar chemical abundances, and is around the same age - about 4.5 billion years old.
It's an even closer match than F-type star HD162826, identified as a stellar sibling in 2014.
We don't actually know where the Sun was born, so every stellar sibling identified is another clue to unravelling our Solar System's history.
'Since there isn't much information about the Sun's past, studying these stars can help us understand where in the Galaxy and under which conditions the Sun was formed,' said astronomer Vardan Adibekyan of IA.
And there's more. The only place in the Universe where we know for a certainty life has formed, is the Solar System. That means the size, age, temperature, luminosity and chemical composition of the Sun are all compatible with life as we know it.
So it seems plausible that planets orbiting other stars with these same qualities - stellar siblings - could also have developed life.
A stellar twin, though, represents an even more hopeful option.
'Some theoretical calculations show that there is non-negligible probability that life spread from Earth to other planets or exoplanetary systems, during the period of the late heavy bombardment,' Adibekyan said.
'If we are lucky, and our sibling candidate has a planet, and the planet is a rocky type, in the habitable zone, and finally if this planet was 'contaminated' by the life seeds from Earth, then we have what one could dream - an Earth 2.0, orbiting a Sun 2.0.'
That's a lot of ifs, to be sure… but, however slim the chance, all these things could plausibly have come to pass. IA astronomers are now making plans to look very hard for signs of any planets that may be orbiting HD186302.
The team's research has been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
HomeCatechetical CornerTwenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Though our prayer might be imperfect, God..
How Old Is Our Sun
Sunday Scripture reading, Aug. 30, 2020
1) Jer 20:7-9
Adobe cs3 master collection free with keygen. Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9
2) Rom 12:1-2 Zanerian manual.
Earth's Second Sun
Gospel: Mt 16:21-27 Minecraft seven deadly sins mod.
In the first line of the first reading, Jeremiah the prophet levels an accusation at God: “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” The Hebrew could also be translated, “You tricked me!” or even, “You seduced me!” That’s not the kind of thing you expect from a prophet.
If you look at Jeremiah’s situation, you can understand why he’s angry. God commissioned him to speak a message to his people: Because you’ve abandoned social justice and turned to false gods, God is going to let military disaster befall you.
Just about everyone hates this message and hates Jeremiah for delivering it. In addition, Jeremiah tells them: You’d better surrender to the approaching enemy. For this he’s hated even more. And he not only suffers the pain of rejection; he himself is horrified at the destruction and death that are coming.
Yet Jeremiah’s accusation isn’t quite right. God didn’t lure him into prophesying with promises of acceptance. When God called him to prophesy, he warned him there’d be opposition. “They will fight against you” (Jer 1:19).
Jeremiah goes on to complain that God has trapped him in his vocation. When the prophet tries to repress God’s message and keep his mouth shut, it becomes like a fire burning him up inside, and he has to let it out.
After this point (not in today’s reading), Jeremiah’s prayer takes a couple of dizzying turns. He sings a hymn celebrating the victory God is going to give him over his enemies. (Where did that come from?) Then he pivots into despair, with a curse on the day of his birth. He ends: “Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame?” (Jer 20:18).
What are we to make of this disturbed and disjointed prayer? Perhaps we should take it not as a model for imitation but as a demonstration. This is not necessarily what prayer should be, but it is what prayer sometimes is.
When we’re upset, we turn to God and pour out a jumble of raw feelings and unexamined thoughts. We say a bunch of things that don’t hang together.
And God is there. God listens. As the psalmist recognizes in the prayer that forms a response to Jeremiah’s prayer: “My soul clings fast to you; your right hand upholds me” (Ps 63:9).
Perrotta is the editor and an author of the “Six Weeks With the Bible” series, teaches part time at Siena Heights University and leads Holy Land pilgrimages.