Searching for the sun's long-lost siblings

Archean

Posts: 5,650   +102
Searching for the sun's long-lost siblings

Evidence that the sun was once part of a brood comes from the rubble leftover from the formation of the solar system. These primordial meteorites contain compounds that can only have formed from the decay of radioactive isotopes produced when a star explodes in a supernova. The abundance of such compounds tells us that the sun grew up less than 1 light year away from a massive star that exploded.

In 2010, Fred Adams at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor reviewed all the properties that constrain the solar system's history and concluded that the sun's star cluster probably had at least 1000 members
Fascinating read, but be ware you may have to get registered with New Scientist site.
 
Back