I haven't looked into it, what's it about HD 186 302 that you like a lot?
We only have one example of how life formed. If we had even one other example, even if it was within our own solar system, it would vastly improve our understanding of how abiotic materials make the jump to biotic. But since we don’t have any other examples, all we have to go on is what we know about ourselves.
It comes down to the organic molecules which are the necessary building blocks for life as we know it. We’ve found them in protoplanetary disks— solar systems that haven’t finished forming.
An entire solar system forms together, all at about the same time, shortly after the star is born. For the most part, everything in a solar system will be made of roughly the same Stuff.
What this means is: the most likely place to find Earth-like life outside of our planet is within our own solar system.
It also means that second most likely place to find Earth-like life is in the solar system of our long-lost twin.
Recent studies have suggested that all stars are born in pairs. The vast majority of stars are actually binary systems, two stars orbiting around each other. Our solar system is an outlier. This doesn’t usually happen.
So…. where is our twin? Obviously, something happened and the stars got flung in wildly different directions. But a group of astronomers found 17,000 potential candidates, which they narrowed down to 55, and then to 4 stars that matched ours. And finally, HD 186302 was declared the most likely match. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to detect any transits to see if it has planets yet…
….but the James Webb Telescope will be able to.
We’re still learning new things all the time, so it’s possible HD 186302 isn’t our solar sibling after all. Regardless, we have a solar twin out there somewhere, like another batch of cookies made from the same batter as ours.
The James Webb Telescope has me unreasonably excited for what amazing new discoveries we may potentially find.
germansingergirl
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