Spectroscopic analysis of 107 pairs of yellow dwarf star systems, 33 pairs of unilateral planetary chemical composition
At least a quarter of the sun-like stars ate one or more of its planets, a new study found.
An international research team led by Lorenzo Spina, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy, analyzed the chemical composition using the light of a star that forms a binary system of G-type main-sequence stars such as the Sun, and published the results of their analysis in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy. announced.
G-type stars, also called yellow dwarfs, make up only about 7% of our galaxy.
Most of the stars are M-type stars, known as red dwarfs, making up about 75% of them.
The Sun has a stable planetary system, which is rare among G-type stars.
The planets in the solar system maintaining near-circular orbits indicate that little has changed since their formation, providing favorable conditions for life to evolve and thrive on Earth.
Of the approximately 4,500 exoplanets identified so far, there are not a few medium and large planets that are dangerously attached to the star.
The research team analyzed 107 G-type binary star systems to determine how many stable planetary systems there are.
Stars in a binary system created from the same gas cloud are similar to twins, but there are cases where they are not, so only cases with similar surface gravity and temperature were selected and the chemical composition was compared through spectroscopic analysis.
As a result, in 33 binary systems, one star’s iron and other planetary components were found to be abnormally higher than that of its companion star.
This provides strong evidence that the star in question has absorbed one or more planets.
In addition, the high content of lithium was additional evidence.
Stars like the sun have a large amount of lithium when they are first formed, but they are exhausted in about 100 million years.
Based on these results, the team said that 20-35% of yellow dwarfs such as the Sun have absorbed one or more of their planets, with about 27% being the most likely number.
This means that at least a quarter of the Sun-like stars have a very unstable and dynamic past, which means that there is little chance of a habitable planet.
In an article on The Conversation, Dr. Spina said, “This research result is a breakthrough in stellar astrophysics and exoplanet exploration.” “We have confirmed that many of the planetary systems with these stars have a very dynamic past, unlike our solar system,” he said.
“This opens up the possibility of using chemical analysis to find stars with calm planetary systems like our solar system,” he said.
“There are millions of sun-like stars that are relatively close together,” he said. “Without a way to filter out the most promising targets, finding ‘Earth 2.0’ would be like the proverbial finding a needle in a haystack.” .
/yunhap news
