ⓘ Braňo – Unsplash
An artist’s illustration showing the Sun.
Astronomers have created a catalog of more than 6,000 stars and have discovered new information about the origin of our Sun. And this could also help answer some questions about our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Although the Sun is essential to life on Earth, its origin remains shrouded in mystery. To answer some of these questions, researchers have created and studied a catalog of stars based on data collected by the Gaia satellite.
If they know that our star formed about 4.6 billion years ago in a region located near the center of our galaxy, some information is still missing. As a result, Daisuke Taniguchi of Tokyo Metropolitan University and Takuji Tsujimoto of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have conducted a study on stars similar to the Sun, with the same composition, mass, and temperature.
ⓘ NAOJ
An illustration showing the Sun’s travel through the Milky Way.
In total, they created a catalog of 6,594 stars and sorted them by age. This is how they discovered a large number of stars between 4 and 6 billion years old, corresponding to the Sun’s age. Consequently, based on these similarities, the researchers believe that the Sun has traveled a long distance across our galaxy, away from its central regions.
This discovery also sheds light on the corotation barrier in our Milky Way. Indeed, this bar-shaped structure in our galaxy prevents the stars from traveling, and according to astronomers, this migration occurred before its formation. But while these findings provide answers, further studies are needed. Indeed, star formation in the Milky Way is still poorly understood, and many mysteries remain.
Astronomy & Astrophysics (1 and 2)
Alexis Stegmann – Tech Writer – 547 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2025
I’ve been working in the field of web writing for several years, and I’m passionate about keeping readers up to date with the latest news on astronomy, technology, the world of video games and other exciting subjects. In particular, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a number of websites, which has enabled me to cover a wide range of subjects. In my personal life, I’m passionate about a wide range of subjects, including astronomy, video games, history and science. I’m also drawn to psychology, which is a subject that deserves greater documentation and recognition.