Astronomers Discover HIP 56948, Best 'Solar Twin' Yet
Star Has Similar Chemistry to Our Sun's
Two astronomers -- Jorge Melendez of The Australian National University and Ivan Ramirez of The University of Texas at Austin -- say they've discovered the best "solar twin" yet found: a star known as HIP 56948 that's located 200 light-years away in the constellation Draco (the dragon). While the star might be a billion years older than the Sun, its chemical composition is remarkably similar to the Sun's.
The discovery is noteworthy because the three previously identified solar twins -- 18 Scorpius, HD 98618 and HIP 100963 -- all have several times more of the element lithium than the Sun does, even though lthey resemble our star in many other ways. The difference led some astronomers to question whether the Sun was unique in some ways that enabled our planet to support life.
The new solar twin, along with a second star known as HIP 73815, both contain lithium in amounts similar to the Sun.
An earlier study had found another similarity beween HIP 56948 and our Sun: neither one has a massive Jupiter-like planet in a close, short-period orbit (in our solar system, Jupiter lies more than 483 million miles away from the Sun and takes nearly 12 years to complete a single orbit). That's an important discovery because nearby giant gas planets are common in many of the 200-plus star systems known to have one or more planets.
With such similar chemical compositions and planetary characteristics, astronomers say a star like HIP 56948 might make a good target for researchers involved in the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project.
Solar twins like HIP 56948 also prove useful for other types of astronomical and astrophysical studies, such as testing theories of star interors and stellar evolution. Our own Sun is often not the best candidate for such research because it's too close and too bright.
McDonald Observatory, "Astronomers Discover Sun's Twin at McDonald Observatory." URL: (http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/news/releases/2007/1109.html)
Published by Shirley Gregory
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- McDonald Observatory at mcdonaldobservatory.org
- The new "solar twin" is called HIP 56948, and i located 200 light-years away.
- The three previously known "solar twins" all have much more lithium than the Sun does.
- Both HIP 56948 and a second star, HIP 73815, have compositions similar to the Sun's.