The Lost Siblings of the Sun
Abstract
The anomalous chemical abundances and the structure of the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt observed in the solar system constrain the initial mass and radius of the star cluster in which the Sun was born to M sime 500-3000M sun and R sime 1-3 pc. When the cluster dissolved, the siblings of the Sun dispersed through the galaxy, but they remained on a similar orbit around the Galactic center. Today these stars hide among the field stars, but 10-60 of them are still present within a distance of ~100 pc. These siblings of the Sun can be identified by accurate measurements of their chemical abundances, positions, and their velocities. Finding even a few will strongly constrain the parameters of the parental star cluster and the location in the Galaxy where we were born.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/696/1/L13
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0903.0237
- Bibcode:
- 2009ApJ...696L..13P
- Keywords:
-
- Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics;
- Galaxy: stellar content;
- solar system: formation;
- solar system: general;
- Sun: general;
- Astrophysics - Galaxy Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Submitted to ApJ Letters