Where in the Milky Way did the sun form?
(ORDO NEWS) — Stars such as our Sun form in common clusters with other similar luminaries from a single gas cloud, which provides them with an identical chemical composition.
Strikingly, by examining more than 100,000 stars within 325 light-years of Earth, astronomers have been able to find only two stars that are as similar as possible to the Sun.
How is this possible?
It is likely that at some point in the evolution of the Sun was “thrown” from the cluster, or for some unknown reason, it drifted from the bowels of the galaxy from the first days of its birth throughout all 4.6 billion years.
Past theories
The Messier 67 cluster, located in the constellation of Cancer, 2,700 light years from Earth, was considered the best candidate for the role of the homeland of the Sun.
It is there that astronomers observe stars that are about the same age as our Sun, have similar temperatures and very similar chemical compositions.
However, in 2012, Mexican astrophysicists conducted their own independent study, applied computer simulations, and concluded that the Sun was not born in Messier 67.
This information was then confirmed by the international scientific community.
If the Sun really formed in the Messier 67 cluster, then in order to get to where it is with us now, it would take an incredible set of circumstances: several massive stars would have to line up and “squeeze out” the Sun, sending it in free swimming.
The sun had to escape at such a speed that nothing would be left of the planetary disk, and today neither the Earth nor other planets would be in the orbit of the star.
In addition, the vertical oscillation of Messier 67 relative to the plane of the Milky Way is five times greater than that of our star, and should be exactly the same.
Where is our star from?
There is no exact answer yet, but there are two hypotheses.
- According to the first, the cluster where the Sun was formed no longer exists, and the “brothers and sisters” have dispersed throughout the galaxy.
- According to the second, the Sun came from the center of the Milky Way, where a huge number of sun-like stars are observed to this day.
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