ASTRONOMY: Search for life focuses on sun's twin in distant galaxy
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Your support makes all the difference.A twin to the sun has been discovered that offers the best chance yet of finding extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers reported yesterday. The star in the constellation of Scorpius, 46 light years from the Earth, is more like the sun than any other investigated before.
Although the sun is often dismissed as an average star, it is actually quite unusual. It is one of only 4 per cent of stars in our galaxy known as G-type main sequence stars. These are yellow stars that burn hydrogen into helium at their centres, and are considered the most obvious target for the search for extraterrestrial life.
Brazilian astronomers Gustavo Porto de Mello, of the Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, and Licio da Silva of the National Observatory, found that the star 18 Scorpii is a virtual carbon copy of the sun.
Using telescopes in Chile and Brazil, they found that the star's mass, temperature, colour, surface gravity and iron abundance closely match the sun's. The star emits 5 per cent more light than the sun and is slightly older.
The astronomers, whose findings will be published in next month's issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, told New Scientist magazine: "We recommend that it be considered for strong priority in the ongoing planet searching programmes as well as in SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) surveys."
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