wizard are divided into three liberal categories related to their chemical compositions . astronomer from the University of Cambridge believe they can go a step further and apply the factor found in whiz to associate how they are related to one another , like a " family tree " .
In a paper published in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , the researcher pick 22 star , including our own Sun , and using 17 chemical elements as a proxy for the “ stellar DNA ” were able to identify three branch of related stars .
The research worker take a leaf out of biota book , which use a organization called phyletic trees to study how exist organisms are related to each other . The team thought that they could create a like attack to see how stars have evolved in the Milky Way .
“ The difference between stars and animals is Brobdingnagian , but they share the property of changing over time , and so both can be analyse by build trees of their history , ” cobalt - writer Professor Robert Foley , of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at Cambridge , say in astatement .
Obviously , stars do n’t have deoxyribonucleic acid so the investigator had to be a bit creative , instead using the copiousness of dissimilar chemical constituent . The first generation of star was made almost exclusively of atomic number 1 and over time they have produced the other element . The virtuoso then died explosives destruction and disseminated those component across the universe .
Later generations of stars have form from hydrogen clouds contaminate with those elements and give in different ways to future enrichment . By combining the position of the stars on the tree with their age , the team was able to estimate the chemical enrichment age and also the distribution of elements in the solar neighborhood .
The family trees of stars , including the Sun , compose by the researchers . Institute of Astronomy
“ The use of goods and services of algorithmic program to identify kinsperson of stars is a science that is forever under development , ” precede author Dr Paula Jofré added . “ Phylogenetic trees summate an extra attribute to our endeavors , which is why this approach is so especial . The branches of the tree serve to inform us about the stars ’ shared history . ”
The team hopes to find a station for every star in the Milky Way on the phylogenetic tree . Detailed composition of wizard is call for for such a matter , but surveys like GAIA and future observatory could go a long fashion in connecting stars through both space and time .
