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[sci.astro] Solar System (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (5/9)
Section - E.04 Could the Sun be part of a binary (multiple) star system?

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See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
	Steve Willner <swillner@cfa.harvard.edu>

Very unlikely.  In the 1980's there was proposed a small companion, nicknamed
Nemesis, in a 26-million-year highly eccentric orbit, to explain apparent
periodicities in the fossil extinction record.  However, these periodicities
have turned out to be more imagined than real, so the driver for the existence
of Nemesis is gone.

Furthermore, such an object would be relatively close by, bright enough in the
infrared to have been detected easily by IRAS, and its high proper motion
should have been detected by astrometrists long ago.

One very slim possibility is that a very faint companion now located
near the aphelion of an eccentric orbit is not ruled out.  Such an
object would be hard to detect because its proper motion would be
small.  It's not clear, however, that an orbit consistent with the
lack of detection would be stable for the Sun's lifetime.

So the chances are that there exist no stellar companions to our Sun.

User Contributions:

1
Keith Phemister
Sep 13, 2024 @ 11:23 pm
Copied from above: If the Universe were infinitely old, infinite in extent, and filled
with stars, then every direction you looked would eventually end on
the surface of a star, and the whole sky would be as bright as the
surface of the Sun.
Why would anyone assume this? Certainly, we have directions where we look that are dark because something that does not emit light (is not a star) is between us and the light. A close example is in our own solar system. When we look at the Sun (a star) during a solar eclipse the Moon blocks the light. When we look at the inner planets of our solar system (Mercury and Venus) as they pass between us and the Sun, do we not get the same effect, i.e. in the direction of the planet we see no light from the Sun? Those planets simply look like dark spots on the Sun.
Olbers' paradox seems to assume that only stars exist in the universe, but what about the planets? Aren't there more planets than stars, thus more obstructions to light than sources of light?
What may be more interesting is why can we see certain stars seemingly continuously. Are there no planets or other obstructions between them and us? Or is the twinkle in stars just caused by the movement of obstructions across the path of light between the stars and us? I was always told the twinkle defines a star while the steady light reflected by our planets defines a planet. Is that because the planets of our solar system don't have the obstructions between Earth and them to cause a twinkle effect?
9-14-2024 KP

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Top Document: [sci.astro] Solar System (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (5/9)
Previous Document: E.03 What is the "Solar Neutrino Problem?"
Next Document: E.05 When will the Sun die? How?

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