The Scotsman

Scientists search for sun’s siblings

- By JOHN VON RADOWITZ newsdeskts@scotsman.com

Astronomer­s searching for the sun’s lost siblings have mapped the “chemical DNA” of 350,000 stars.

They are looking for the chemical signatures of stars delivered into the universe together and then separated after birth.

Aeons ago, the sun was formed with many thousands of other stars in a “cluster” that was quickly pulled apart by gravity and scattered across our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Every star in the sun’s birth cluster will share the same chemical compositio­n.

The Galactic Archaeolog­y (Galah) survey aims to help scientists identify the Milky Way’s original star clusters, including the one that spawned the sun.

Lead researcher Professor Martin Asplund, from the Australian National University, said: “This survey allows us to trace the ancestry of stars, showing how the universe went from having only hydrogen and helium to being filled with all the elements we have here on Earth that are necessary for life.

“Measuring each chemical element abundance to get the stellar DNA for so many stars is an enormous challenge.”

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