Published 18:45 IST, August 27th 2020
Sun might have a 'long lost twin'; study explains traces of binary system
Sun is the largest object of our solar system, but the recent hypothesis reveals that it may have a long lost twin. NASA astronomers are intrigued. Read.
A recent study has revealed that our home star, Sun, may have a twin star. This study was reported by TNW, and the observations came out when few astronomers from Astrophysics predicted that the presence Planet 9 which is popularly known as Planet X could have been a part of another star system. These findings not only present new questions but it also brings forward a different mystery that has to be solved to find the truth about the existence of the world.
Sun may have formed with a twin star
According to the Astrophysics recent study, astronomers have been thinking about the possibility of a massive unknown planet beyond the Oort Clouds of our Solar System. The observations also speak that the Oort clouds which exist beyond the Kuiper Belt where the icy objects exist including the dwarf planet Pluto are home to short-period comets. These comets, once every 200 years (approximately), complete their journey (orbit) in the inner solar system.
According to NASA, “The Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the rest of the solar system. It is like a big, thick-walled bubble made of icy pieces of space debris the sizes of mountains and sometimes larger. The Oort Cloud might contain billions, or even trillions, of objects".
As per the several studies and observations made by numerous astronauts over the period of time, many stars in the universe are born in a binary solar system. This is what triggers the hypothesis that our Sun might too have been born with a long lost twin. Researcher in the Astrophysical Journal Letters wrote that: “Here, we consider a temporary binary companion to the Sun that could have existed only in the solar birth cluster, and explore the plausibility and implications of such a possibility for both the formation of the [outer Oort Cloud] and the capture of Planet Nine.”
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Dr Avi Loeb of Harvard University explained the phenomenon of the binary model of stellar formation in his recent statement. He revealed that the "binary systems are far more efficient at capturing objects than are single stars". This is why one can also assume that Sun was once a part of a binary system looking at the concentration of material scattered from within the Solar System. Dr Loeb also mentioned that "If the Oort cloud formed as observed, it would imply that the Sun did, in fact, have a companion of similar mass that was lost before the Sun left its birth cluster”.
However, the entire hypothesis is based on the idea that there might be a presence of an unseen world orbiting far from the Sun beyond the Oort Cloud. If this hypothesis is someday proven to be true, then it would directly point out that our Sun was once a part of a Binary System to which it has lost its twin. Nevertheless, with the current technology with the human race, it seems impossible to find out evidence regarding this, but in the future, we must know if the Sun ever had a long lost twin.
All Images ~ NASA
Updated 18:45 IST, August 27th 2020