Our sun is five billion years younger than most other stars in our galaxy

Excerpt from stgist.com




Using multiple ground based, and space telescopes, including the
Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in South
America, a new study was able to confirm that the closest star from us,
the Sun, was formed after the so-called stellar “baby boom” of the Milky
Way galaxy.


It’s like traveling back in time. Researchers from Texas A&M University
in College Station, headed by astronomer Casey Papovich, were able to
see the undepicted past of our own galaxy by observing similar regions
located billions of light years away from us.


The “baby boom” happened around 10 billion years ago, the new study published in Astrophysical Journal
revealed. At that time, the Milky Way galaxy was producing 30 times
more stars than today. If so, then our solar system’s 4.6 billion years
old Sun was formed more than 5 billion years after the production peak.


Sun’s late formation allowed the solar system we know today to
produce planets with heavier elements. Scientists say elements
heavier than hydrogen and helium became more abundant in “late to the
game systems”, and the death of massive stars that were formed before
the Sun had provided materials needed to form planets, including Earth
and its complex life forms.


Scientists scanned through a collection of more than 24,000 galaxies,
and took at least 2,000 snapshots of galaxies that closely resemble our
own. The census has provided the most complete picture yet of how
spiral galaxies similar to Milky Way form in the universe.


According to Mr. Papovich, the lead author of the study who also
serves as an associate professor in the Department of Physics and
Astronomy at A&M University in Texas, they know where to find
traces by analyzing how galaxies like our own were formed.


Papovich said his team has provided a data that clearly show the
rapid phase of growth around 9 to 10 billion years ago, or at least more
than 5 billion years after our Sun formed. They also found the
connection between the size of the galaxy, and the formation of stars.


Surprisingly, the robust collection of distant galaxies confirmed
that stars formed inside the Milky Way, instead of forming in other
smaller baby galaxies that later merged to join the system.


In separate studies, scientists were able to confirm that our own
solar system is wetter than thought. Beyond Earth, celestial objects
like Jupiter’s Galilean moons Europa and Ganymede, Saturn’s Enceladus,
and even the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt, are hosting fluid
slightly similar to Earth’s — and it is highly possible that the Sun’s
late formation allowed this setup to exist.


Papovich who worked alongside Texas A&M postdoctoral researchers
Vithal Tilvi and Ryan Quadri, were joined by at least two dozen
astronomers from other countries. The research is published April 9th
entitled “ZFOURGE/CANDELS: ON THE EVOLUTION OF M* GALAXY PROGENITORS
FROM z = 3 TO 0.5*.” The research was funded by NASA

Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AscensionEarth2012/~3/WTrOglvxnSw/our-sun-is-five-billion-years-younger.html

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