The Sun Had Sisters

[TheBORG] writes to mention a Space.com article about the Sun's departed solar siblings. Our own medium-sized yellow star was far from alone when it was formed, with hundreds of fellow solar bodies and a supernova to keep it company. From the article: "The evidence for the solar sisters was found in daughters--such as decayed particles from radioactive isotopes of iron--trapped in meteorites, which can be studied as fossil remnants of the early solar system. These daughter species allowed Looney and his colleagues to discern that a supernova with the mass of about 20 suns exploded relatively near the early Sun when it formed 4.6 billion years ago; and where there are supernovas or any massive star, you also see hundreds to thousands of sun-like stars, he said. The cluster of thousands of stars dispersed billions of years ago due to a lack of gravitational pull, Looney said, leaving the sisters 'lost in space' and our Sun looking like an only child ever since, he said."

Like the Pointer Sisters....

[rubberbando]

They were doing the Nutron Dance....woooohooo...

Not just another Looney Theory...

[Kelson]

...but an appropriate name for an astrophysicist.

Pah!

[Anonymous Coward]

Pah, evidence. Faith and internal revelation is a much more powerful "way of knowing." Look at me! I'm an epistomologist!

Sisters?

[MANYplaces84]

I bet they were hot!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Down another rung of importance.

[955301]

Let me see if I have this clear now. We are mold forming upon the scum on top of a molten pile of rock swinging around a hot piece of miniscule debris left over from a single speck exploding on the outskirts of a tiny disk floating in a vast space full of other tiny disks and whatnot? And the going theories include one where this vast space is only one of an infinite number of vast spaces?

Put's watching my diet in perpective, that's for certain.

Just wait till he starts on his next theory..

[Channard]

'Interplanetary lesbian incest and its place in the formation of our galaxy'

Re:Pah!

[Etherwalk]

> Look at me! I'm an epistomologist!

Really? How do we know that?

Re:lack of gravitational pull??

[pclminion]

So the claim is that hundreds, maybe thousands, of sun-like stars were in close proximity to each other, but they didn't generate enough gravity to stay in the same neighborhood? How does that make any kind of sense?

Allow me to introduce my good friend, Kinetic Energy.

And in an alternate universe...

[stile99]

A scientist named Twoney is publishing an article in the Astrophysical Journal proposing that a supernova billions of years ago would have resulted in the presence of only one little lonely star in this sector of the galaxy, with the nearest neighbor over four light-years away. "Imagine what a lonely, cold place our solar system would be had this horrible event happened," said Terry Twoney. "Why, our solar system would be so small that life might be viable on just one planet, and Pluto would be so small and cold there would be debates regarding if it even counted as a planet!"

The sun's sisters?

[dantheman82]

Aren't they Solaris [sun.com], and Coffee Beans [sun.com], the N1 Star [sun.com], and StarSuite [sun.com], as well as GSun [gsun.com] and iSun [isun.com]?

Re:"If our favorite planet, Earth...

[chrismcdirty]

Time to change the name to end that joke once and for all. I propose we name it 'Urectum'.

Re:Oh yeah, believable...

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if said Looney theory involved any anvils falling onto the Sun's head ... or the Sun not falling until it notices it's not standing on anything.

Runge-Kutta!!

[arthurpaliden]

Grabs his hair and runs screaming from the room.

So was this the equivalent

[hcob$]

of a Galactic Porno? I mean, the thing exploded all over the Sun and her Sisters... No wonder they ran away.

Can't be

[ZombieSquirrel]

If there used to be more suns in the sky, you'd think it would have been mentioned in the bible. Hmmm . . . ?

Re:lack of gravitational pull??

[vtcodger]

No, you don't understand. The cluster was a bit sloppy about its financial mangement, maxed out the credit cards took out some unfortunate adjustable rate loans and eventually its financial situation became untenable. The banks grabbed the only remaining asset -- the gravity.

So here we are, orphaned, adrift and alone. An object lesson for all to observe ...

Re:Analog Computing

[pclminion]

I've had an idea for a while for an analog computer which computes orbits.

First step, acquire a star. Second step, acquire a planet and place it in orbit around the star. Record what happens. See, it's an analog computer that calculates orbits!

Re:Down another rung of importance.

[TheForgotton]

Have you ever considered becoming an organ donor?

Re:The sun's sisters?

[Guppy06]

Would that make Project Blackbox [sun.com] the dark matter everybody is talking about?

Re:Just wait till he starts on his next theory..

[Ixne]

Now that's what I call a Big Bang.

Re:lack of gravitational pull??

[budgenator]

OOHH, I got some yummies troll-cookies to feed you! If your solving Newtonian physics for three bodies in orbit, there are some people over at NASA and teh Nobel committee that would like to talk to you; because right now we can solve two bodies, and approximate three bodies, but your doing clusters, dude you rock.