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