Berkeley: New Evidence That All Stars Are Born in Pairs

[bystander]

New Evidence That All Stars Are Born in Pairs
University of California, Berkeley | 2017 Jun 13

[img3="Radio image of a very young binary star system, less than about 1 million
years old, that formed within a dense core (oval outline) in the Perseus
molecular cloud. All stars likely form as binaries within dense cores.
SCUBA-2 survey image by Sarah Sadavoy, CfA."]https://news.berkeley.edu/wp-content/up ... _5_350.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

Did our sun have a twin when it was born 4.5 billion years ago?

Almost certainly yes — though not an identical twin. And so did every other sunlike star in the universe, according to a new analysis by a theoretical physicist from the University of California, Berkeley, and a radio astronomer from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University.

Many stars have companions, including our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, a triplet system. Astronomers have long sought an explanation. Are binary and triplet star systems born that way? Did one star capture another? Do binary stars sometimes split up and become single stars?

Astonomers have even searched for a companion to our sun, a star dubbed Nemesis because it was supposed to have kicked an asteroid into Earth’s orbit that collided with our planet and exterminated the dinosaurs. It has never been found.

The new assertion is based on a radio survey of a giant molecular cloud filled with recently formed stars in the constellation Perseus, and a mathematical model that can explain the Perseus observations only if all sunlike stars are born with a companion. ...

Embedded Binaries and Their Dense Cores - Sarah I. Sadavoy, Steven W. Stahler

• Monthly Notices of the RAS 469(4):3881 (Aug 2017) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx1061
  arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1705.00049 > 28 Apr 2017

[BDanielMayfield]

If all stars are born in multiple star systems then being in such a system is no hinderance (or, at least, not as much of a hinderance) to planet formation as was once thought. At the very least, for this "all stars are born in pairs" theory to be true the observation that almost all single stars have planets must be accounted for also.

Bruce

[neufer]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 64#p271664

[BDanielMayfield]

Vastly different birthing processes Art.

All planets (except for a few sub-brown dwarfs) are born inside star systems. If a planet gets ejected out of its home system it is often called a Rouge Rogue Planet. If all stars are born inside multi-star systems (I doubt it), then couldn't all single stars be considered to be rouges rogues as well? Or, at least, the least massive of the sundered pair would be the rouge rogue, but hard or impossible to tell which was less massive in most cases.

The reason I doubt this all stars are born in pairs idea is close to home; our own single sun system. Is there any evidence whatsoever that Sol was once part of a multi-star system? If not, then this all stars idea is overstated. Most, or even almost all stars being born in pairs would be much easier to accept.

This likely is yet another anti- Copernican Principle factor with regard to life on Earth. The sun is a rouge rogue, or at least, an atypical star, seemingly.

Bruce

[neufer]

The sun is a rouge [sic ], or at least, an atypical star, seemingly.

rouge (n.) 1753, in cosmetic sense, "blush," from French rouge "red coloring matter," noun use of adjective "red" (12c.), from Latin rubeus, related to ruber "red".

rogue (n.) 1560s, "idle vagrant," perhaps a shortened form of roger (with a hard -g-), thieves' slang for a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge, which is perhaps an agent noun in English from Latin rogare "to ask." In playful or affectionate use, "one who is mischievous," 1590s. Meaning "large wild beast living apart from the herd" is from 1859, originally of elephants.

[BDanielMayfield]

I did that again! My Achilles heel trips me up yet again? I repent, in sackcloth and ashes from my grievious and egregious misspellings. Corrections pending.

I appleagize profusely.

Bruce

[rstevenson]

I'm sure you can get a speel chocker plug-in for your browser, Bruce.

Rob

[BDanielMayfield]

I'm sure you can get a speel chocker plug-in for your browser, Bruce.

Rob

Oh I have one, which helps me a great deal, usually. But when your error is also a real word yer outa luck Chuck.

[rstevenson]

Good pint.

Rob

[BDanielMayfield]

Speaking of good points, after actually reading more in depth about this stars born in pairs idea it is becoming more understandable and plausible. The deal with Sun-like single star systems is that the original star pairs would have been quite widely separated, which allows for planetary systems like ours to form and for the easy breakup of the binary star pairing.

Bruce