Looking for the Lost Brother of the Sun.

in #science7 years ago


pixabay

As is known in general, the stars we see in the sky are formed together. Not much different from our sun, it also has its twin star which according to scientists has been lost. astronomers are now busy finding our lost Sun's brothers By mapping the "DNA" of the 350,000 stars in our galaxy.

The mission of searching the lost brothers of the Sun is named as Galactic Archeology Survey (GALAH), which has been started since 2013 in order to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy.

To find out how the formation and evolution of the galaxy, astronomers need to discover and examine the origin of the original star cluster in the Milky Way, including the star clusters in which the Sun was born.

The star clusters in the Milky Way galaxy are known to spread in all directions. In fact, there are now so many stars that are already separated from the cluster of stars in which they were born. However, fortunately, every star born in a cluster will surely have the same chemical composition.

"This survey allows us to track where a star is born and we will also know about how a universe that originally had only hydrogen and helium, has now richer elements and can even produce life like us," says Professor Asplund from Australian National University, the leader of this study.

For every star in the survey, Professor Asplund and his colleagues will calculate how many chemical elements the stars contain, such as oxygen, aluminum, and iron. Astronomers do this by separating the light from each star into individual components using a technique called spectroscopy.

"Every chemical element leaves unique dark bands patterned at certain wavelengths in this spectrum, such as fingerprints," said Professor Daniel Zucker of the Australian Astronomical Observatory, one of the astronomers in the study.

At least, it takes about an hour to collect enough photons of light on each star to be studied. However, by using GALAH, this team of astronomers can observe 360 ​stars at the same time.

To date, the GALAH team has spent 280 nights to collect this 350,000-star data. As the stars are all mapped, we can see which stars in the night sky used to coincide with the Sun.

But what's the point of this mission? Indeed, the benefits will not have a direct impact on human life. However, the results of this study will be very useful for the science of mankind, especially in understanding the dynamics of orbital and the evolution of our own galaxy, star, and planet.

Reference :

https://news.utexas.edu/2014/05/08/sun-sibling-astronomy
https://www.amazon.com/Circles-Around-Sun-Search-Brother/dp/1468307088
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_formation_and_evolution
https://www.universetoday.com/26749/formation-of-the-milky-way/

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