Messier 67 (also known as M67 or NGC 2682) is an open cluster in the constellation of Cancer
Barbara Pichardo, Edmundo Moreno, Christine Allen, Luigi R. Bedin, Andrea Bellini, Luca Pasquini
Using the most recent proper-motion determination of the old, Solar-metallicity, Galactic open cluster M 67, in orbital computations in a non-axisymmetric model of the Milky Way, including a bar and 3D spiral arms, we explore the possibility that the Sun once belonged to this cluster.
We have performed Monte Carlo numerical simulations to generate the present-day orbital conditions of the Sun and M 67, and all the parameters in the Galactic model.
We compute 3.5 \times 10^5 pairs of orbits Sun-M 67 looking for close encounters in the past with a minimum distance approach within the tidal radius of M 67.
In these encounters we find that the relative velocity between the Sun and M 67 is larger than 20 km/s.
If the Sun had been ejected from M 67 with this high velocity by means of a three-body encounter, this interaction would destroy an initial circumstellar disk around the Sun, or disperse its already formed planets. We also find a very low probability, much less than 10^-7, that the Sun was ejected from M 67 by an encounter of this cluster with a giant molecular cloud.
This study also excludes the possibility that the Sun and M 67 were born in the same molecular cloud.
Our dynamical results convincingly demonstrate that M67 could not have been the birth cluster of our Solar System….
Read more:arxiv.org/pdf
Posted on January 5, 2012
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