From astronomers from Harvard University, and Massachusetts, U.S, consider the possibility that the Sol have had a “twin” in its first years of life.
The abundance of dwarf planets and other celestial bodies in the Oort cloud, which surrounds the Sol in a radius of a thousand astronomical units, it could indicate that where our solar system is located there was a binary star system.
The experts on the subject provided the explanation about the configuration of the solar system in an article published last Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, where they estimated that this second star could be the missing piece from previous exhibitions.
Scientists calculate that “twin” disappeared, it must have a mass almost equal to that of the Sun, it was in the same protoplanetary cluster and 103 astronomical units separated them.
According to this theory, the outer Oort cloud would not be a remnant of the protoplanetary disk of the Sol, but it would also be associated with that disappeared star.
Amir Siraj |, a graduate student at Harvard University, believes that this model of “binary capture” it would improve our understanding of the facts as “most of the stars similar to Sol they are born with companions. “
According to the teacher Abraham Loeb, co-author of the study, that “twin” would have helped the Sun to form the Oort cloud because, commonly, binary systems “they are much more effective” than the stars alone when capturing objects.
The Oort cloud would have also caused major events on our planet, from providing water to the Earth to even causing the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The astronomers They hope that at the beginning of 202, the inauguration of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, in Coquimbo, Chile, will confirm or discard its existence in a definitive way and offer clues about its origins.
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