back to article We're from the same dust cloud, bro: Boffins find Sun's long-lost sibling

Astroboffins have found the Sun’s long-lost sibling, separated at birth from the star which now resides at the centre of our Solar System. The Sun's much larger brother has 15 per cent greater mass and is located 110 light years away in the constellation Hercules, say boffins who are convinced it was almost certainly born …

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  1. Paul Kinsler

    "can be viewed even with low-power binoculars "

    does this, for most of us, really mean "might be seen with binoculars, if only it wasn't for all the light pollution"?

    (can be found in kstars, for those with KDE stuff on their system)

    1. Mpeler
      Alien

      Re: "can be viewed even with low-power binoculars "

      Researchers extended their survey down to low-frequency radiation, looking for "cool effects" of the since-broken cluster, finding, among other things, the universe's oldest song....

      Breaking Up is Hard to Do....

      Neil Sedaka is older than we thought....

      C'mon, AManFromMars, what's your take on this?

  2. NoneSuch Silver badge

    Is boffinry being segmented now? Aeroboffins, geoboffins, mechoboffins, and the inevitable nautiboffins

    1. Gordon 11

      And do pathologists now become coffinboffins?

      1. Euripides Pants
        Thumb Up

        Re: coffinboffins

        If that one doesn't become the OED word of the year there is something wrong with our species.

        1. Mpeler
          Coat

          Re: coffinboffins

          And if they were well-heeled, would that make them toffcoffinboffins?

          or if they had a cold, etc. itsnotthecoughthatcarriesyouoffitsthecoffintheycarryyouoffinboffins?

          (gets me coat before they carrymeoffin....)

    2. ectogestator

      Don't forget journoboffins.

  3. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    I like the idea

    of naughtyboffins ?

    Sounds like there should be a website devoted to it ....

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: I like the idea

      naughtyboffins.com appears to not be registered. My faith in Rule 34 is completely shaken. Where is my Danica McKellar/Albert Einstein slashfic, dammit?

  4. wowfood

    Let me be the first to say

    Hey It's your solar cousin, the sun. Want to go bowling?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Let me be the first to say

      Log in now to Galactic Hangouts!

  5. Pen-y-gors

    Bad news...

    Does this mean there could be other planets out there where Country and Western music has evolved?

    1. Arnold Lieberman
      Joke

      Re: Bad news...

      Don't be silly! C & W didn't evolve, it was designed that way! (or so the audience would rather believe).

      1. Euripides Pants

        Re: Bad news...

        It neither evolved or was designed, it was a bad accident.

      2. JCitizen
        Devil

        Re: Bad news...

        No more than rap music, which has not changed since 1980! HA! I'd say they are in competition for longest lived music media!

        1. Mpeler
          Paris Hilton

          Re: Bad news...

          Actually when they get there to get a closer look, they'll see it's a giant disco ball with replicas of John Travolta orbiting in polyester leisure suits....watch out for the avocado-colored space ships....

          Paris....well, she's a star too...

  6. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Happy

    Interesting

    I'll give HD 162826 a wave next time the clouds part and I can do some stargazing

    Stellarium is a great (free) tool for finding the star (and much more besides)

    1. Steven Roper

      Re: Interesting

      Or you could install Celestia and actually fly right up to it. Although there's not a whole lot to look at...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...4.5 billion years ago...” Ramirez said. “A lot of things can happen in that amount of time.”

    Really?? A lot of things can happen in 4.5 billion years? Thanks for that keen insight there, doc!!

    Of course a lot of the Sun's siblings might have been significantly larger stars, and will have since exhausted their nuclear fuel and burned out/blown up. And a lot of them are probably brown dwarfs, which will burn for 10s of billions of years, but are hard to see because of their comparative dimness.

    1. knarf

      Re: "...4.5 billion years ago...” Ramirez said. “A lot of things can happen in that amount of time.”

      "brown dwarfs, which will burn for 10s of billions of years, but are hard to see because of their comparative dimness."

      Even the sun has some dim cousins .....

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. psychonaut

        Re: "...4.5 billion years ago...” Ramirez said. “A lot of things can happen in that amount of time.”

        the daily mail, for instance

      3. Scroticus Canis
        Headmaster

        Re: "brown dwarfs, which will burn for 10s of billions of years"

        Please, Brown Dwarfs are not stars and don't have hydrogen 1 fusion, Red Dwarfs however do match your criteria and are stars, albeit dim ones.

        1. Blain Hamon
          Coat

          Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.

          Dim ones? On the contrary, I found the humor in Red Dwarf to be quite brilliant.

          Mine's the one with the Better Than Life total immersion video game in the pocket.

    2. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: "...4.5 billion years ago...” Ramirez said. “A lot of things can happen in that amount of time.”

      Still haven't invented slood, however

  8. Robin

    Dust Brothers

    Back with another one of those rock-rockin' heats?

    (Think it's time to go home)

  9. Scott Broukell

    But everything is star-stuff and cometh from the stuff wot made the stars themselves. We are all in an instant, and for however long the universe is around, cousins in our own universal stuffy way. Rejoice and go forth and multiply (probably by 42), .... stuff is, like, kool!

  10. Comphuman

    I am a real amateur astronomer. The pros seldom look up from their computer monitors, and through an eyepiece. They type in a number of coordinates to slew their scope to the object. In the real world, the finder map coming with this article is totally worthless. Yes, under a dark sky you will need the finder stars to know where to point your binoculars or telescope. Pollution is not an issue here, just as long as you can see those other stars, because what we are looking at is just beyond normal vision. Problem is, HD 162826 is one of three similarly bright stars closely visually associated in a three-stars arc, and you cannot make out which one is your target, even while looking at it, without a good finder map. I have prepared finder maps for binoculars and reflector telescope, along with an essay on this star, that will allow you to both see AND identify our sun's sibling: astronomy [hyphen] links [dot] net/Stella [dot] html

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Where in the world should one stand for the stars in the finder map to be that way up? Presumably the map is for people in UK & USA, but won't the stars be the other way up in Australia?

      1. Michael Dunn
        Joke

        "but won't the stars be the other way up in Australia?" And, no doubt, swirling counterclockwise!

        1. Martin Budden Silver badge
          Boffin

          Joking aside, it's the other way round. When I look at the stars swirling around the bit of sky which is above the South Pole, they are swirling clockwise. It's the northern ones which swirl anticlockwise around Polaris.

      2. Comphuman

        Rotating skies

        Yes, the stars and constellations do rotate as they go across the sky. It's all simple mathematics. In this case, you only need to be where the constellation Hercules is visible, and then look for the famous asterism known as the keystone. It shows very clearly in the professional map. From there, use the two stars as shown to find where to point your instrument. You will still need a better finder chart to pick out Sol's sister in the three-stars arc.

      3. Comphuman

        Add this to my previous comment.

        If you are now in Wellington, NZ, or somewhere of similar latitude in Australia, you would see that Hercules is only barely visible above the horizon, due to its northern skies location. Right now, our sibling star only comes about 5 degrees above the horizon in NZ, about 2:30 a.m. To see it you would need pristine clear, dark skies toward the north.

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