Stars' 'DNA' could help scientists find Sun's lost siblings
Sydney, April 18: With the aim to find the lost siblings of the Sun, now scattered across the sky, a team of astronomers has collected the "DNA" of more than 340,000 stars in the Milky Way.
The "DNA" can help trace the ancestry of stars, showing astronomers how the universe went from having only hydrogen and helium -- just after the Big Bang -- to being filled today with all the elements we have here on Earth that are necessary for life.
The research, detailed in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is based on the Galactic Archaeology survey, called GALAH, launched in late 2013 as part of a quest to uncover the formulation and evolution of galaxies.
When complete, GALAH will investigate more than a million stars.
The GALAH survey used the HERMES spectrograph at the Australian Astronomical Observatory's (AAO) 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope near Coonabarabran in New South Wales to collect spectra for the 340,000 stars.
"No other survey has been able to measure as many elements for as many stars as GALAH," said Gayandhi De Silva of the University of Sydney and AAO.
"This data will enable such discoveries as the original star clusters of the Galaxy, including the Sun's birth cluster and solar siblings -- there is no other dataset like this ever collected anywhere else in the world," De Silva said.
The Sun, like all stars, was born in a group or cluster of thousands of stars, explained Sarah Martell from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney who leads the GALAH survey observations.
"Every star in that cluster will have the same chemical composition, or DNA - these clusters are quickly pulled apart by our Milky Way Galaxy and are now scattered across the sky," Martell said.
"The GALAH team's aim is to make DNA matches between stars to find their long-lost sisters and brothers," she added.
For each star, this DNA is the amount they contain of each of nearly two dozen chemical elements such as oxygen, aluminium and iron.
Unfortunately, astronomers cannot collect the DNA of a star with a mouth swab but instead use the starlight, with a technique called spectroscopy.
The light from the star is collected by the telescope and then passed through an instrument called a spectrograph, which splits the light into detailed rainbows, or spectra.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
