Many of us grew up learning that a star comes and goes—ending its “life” by supernovae explosion or as a red giant turning into a white dwarf, for example. But the life story of a star has neither a sharply defined beginning nor a total ending. The death of a star can give birth to new stars by providing gas, dust and debris to built up new objects in space: solar system genealogy continues by recycling matter.
Recent research, including observations and modeling, suggests that the solar system had a parent star, which after its burst seeded the space with enough atoms of various chemical elements to make possible the formation of our solar system, and maybe even “sibling”systems [1-5]. The astrophysicists Matthieu Gounelle and Georges Meynet proposed to call the sun's “mother” star Coatlicue, after the Aztec mother of the sun [3-5].
Coatlicue (pronounced Co-at-li-cu-e) is the Aztec earth-mother goddess and patron of childbirth [6]. She also is seen as the goddess who gave birth to the moon and stars including the sun. She essentially was the “mother of everything” in Aztec mythology [7]. And from a planet Earth viewpoint, Coatlicue definitely was—unless new findings will make it necessary to redraw the galaxial family tree of star evolution within our corner of the Milky Way. What if there were multiple mothers and the picture of a star family tree needs to be replaced by a more elaborately networked star-descendency graph?
Keywords: Coatlicue; cosmochemistry; solar system formation; mythology.
[2] R. Boyle: The Secret Life of the sun. Scientific American, June 2018, 318 (6), 26-33.
[3] M. Gounelle and G. Meynet: The solar system genealogy revealed by meteorites. Astronomy & Astrophysics August 2012, 545, article number A4. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201219031.
[4] CNRS: Solar system genealogy revealed by meteorites. August 2012. PHYS.ORG. Link: phys.org/news/2012-08-solar-genealogy-revealed-meteorites.html.
[5] A. Morlok: Die Galaxis ist gerade mal groß genug für uns. December 2015, EXO-PLANETAR BLOG. Link: scilogs.spektrum.de/exo-planetar/die-presseschau-november-galaxis-plus/.
[6] M. Cartwright: Coatlicue. Ancient History Encyclopedia, November 2013. Link: www.ancient.eu/Coatlicue/.
[7] Coatlicue mother of the Sun. astronoo, 2013. Link: http://www.astronoo.com/en/articles/supernova-coatlicue.html.
Recent research, including observations and modeling, suggests that the solar system had a parent star, which after its burst seeded the space with enough atoms of various chemical elements to make possible the formation of our solar system, and maybe even “sibling”systems [1-5]. The astrophysicists Matthieu Gounelle and Georges Meynet proposed to call the sun's “mother” star Coatlicue, after the Aztec mother of the sun [3-5].
Coatlicue (pronounced Co-at-li-cu-e) is the Aztec earth-mother goddess and patron of childbirth [6]. She also is seen as the goddess who gave birth to the moon and stars including the sun. She essentially was the “mother of everything” in Aztec mythology [7]. And from a planet Earth viewpoint, Coatlicue definitely was—unless new findings will make it necessary to redraw the galaxial family tree of star evolution within our corner of the Milky Way. What if there were multiple mothers and the picture of a star family tree needs to be replaced by a more elaborately networked star-descendency graph?
Keywords: Coatlicue; cosmochemistry; solar system formation; mythology.
References and more to explore
[1] S. Pfalzner et al.: The formation of the solar system. Physica Scripta April 2015, 90 (6). Link: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-8949/90/6/068001.[2] R. Boyle: The Secret Life of the sun. Scientific American, June 2018, 318 (6), 26-33.
[3] M. Gounelle and G. Meynet: The solar system genealogy revealed by meteorites. Astronomy & Astrophysics August 2012, 545, article number A4. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201219031.
[4] CNRS: Solar system genealogy revealed by meteorites. August 2012. PHYS.ORG. Link: phys.org/news/2012-08-solar-genealogy-revealed-meteorites.html.
[5] A. Morlok: Die Galaxis ist gerade mal groß genug für uns. December 2015, EXO-PLANETAR BLOG. Link: scilogs.spektrum.de/exo-planetar/die-presseschau-november-galaxis-plus/.
[6] M. Cartwright: Coatlicue. Ancient History Encyclopedia, November 2013. Link: www.ancient.eu/Coatlicue/.
[7] Coatlicue mother of the Sun. astronoo, 2013. Link: http://www.astronoo.com/en/articles/supernova-coatlicue.html.
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