Thursday, April 25, 2024

Census of cosmic neighborhoods | Science Press Agency

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Maria Gill
Maria Gill
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This is what reveals the “count” of our galaxy suburb, Published April 30th on a pre-release server. Admittedly, nearby stars have been known for a long time, but the authors say they were the first to make a complete count of known “other objects,” including Brown dwarves Objects too small to conform to the definition of a star and too large to conform to the definition of a planet. And it is possible that there are still dozens of other brown dwarves to be discovered, even in this “small” area, as Celine Riley writes, From the French Institute UTINAMAnd colleagues.

As for the seventy-seven planets, the more reason they represent a work just started: the past three decades have made it possible to discover the largest of them, and there are undoubtedly many other smaller planets awaiting their turn.

Roughly two-thirds of the stars (249 out of 375) are red dwarfs, like our closest neighbor, Proxima Centauri.

For those who want a basis of comparison: our galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across. If this “bubble” 33 light-years in diameter (or 10 astronomical parsecs) represents the rest, then this may be a starting point for estimating the total number of “objects”.

Image: Each circle represents two astronomical leagues, with the sun in the center. Source: Galaxymap.org

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