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Does our sun have a companion star?

Searching For A Long Lost Star

If so it is so-far undiscovered.

Certainly there is some gravitational bonding between the sun and other nearby stars. Well to be completely petty all other objects in the universe within our event horizon.

But so far, while such a star has been suspected, once the name "nemesis" was applied to it no candidate has been discovered.

My suspicion ... there may well be a very cool red dwarf out there somewhere beyond the Kuiper belt.

But for today, the answer remains, no!

This is a really interesting speculation. For a long time my personal beliefs include provision for a companion massive enough to qualify as a binary companion.

The basis for my personal conjecture is the distribution of the matter within the known Solar System with most of the known planetary mass located towards the outer portions of the system and that may suggest something large enough to offset the Suns Mass to pull that extra planetary stuff farther out. I am surprised that Astronomers can?t determine with reasonable certainty whether or not the Solar System is revolving around some central point other than just at the Suns center.

For the benefit of Amaranth I propose a small solar system centered on a brown dwarf that puts out very little light but a lot of heat. The people there have large black eyes, are smaller than us, and, depending on the size of their home planet, will average lighter or heavier that we are. We can?t see them because of the distance and limited light but they can see us- take it Amaranth.

jjw

i forget which of the big sci/sci fi (yes many ppl do write both, Sir Isaac Asimov was one) suggested that the earth has a companion black hole. it would be very small and far enough out that we could not get much in the way of its radiation, but we would feel the gravity. earth, being so much close to the sun, would hardly notice it, but the objects much farther out would. it would also be all but impossible to detect.

again, this is just spectulation, and i have no idea if he was right or not. it could explain why no one has ever seen it.

Jim, I thank you for the idea. But a creature needs an ecosystem. Are you proposing plant life that uses infrared radiation for photosynthesis? Work with me here. The idea needs to be fleshed out a little more. It sounds interesting, I'll have to give it some more thought.

Amaranth

There is not sufficient energy in an IR photon to make and break the bonds required by photosynthesis. This doesn't mean some other chemistry might not work but it would not be any biochemistry of which we are aware.

of course that is assuming that we know all there is no know about photosynthesis. the plants on earth evolved the way they did because of the conditions that were present here. its possible that in a low light/high ir planet, there might be another way the photosynthesis would still work. there are places on earth that should not have life, yet they still do. i believe that there is a type of plant that uses light coming from a volcano in the south pacific. Please dont ask me to quote that as its been many years since i heard of it. What if the planet itself previded the light the plants needed. or the plants that creat a light of their own. they could have a symbotic system that allowed other plants to grow, while at the same time getting some nutrient from them.

We know everything we need to know about photosynthesis as it occurs on this planet.

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/ecotree/photosynthesis/spectrum.htm

Really.. if this was TRUE (and its not, common sense) or even better factual in manner.. why are we (as a planet) spending billions trying to develope higher yield, faster growing food crops? these 2 PRIMARY areas are completely covered by the rate of photosynthesis are they not? Science is not even sure what COZ (a crucial ingredient in photosynthesis) does AT DIFFERENT LEVELS, if we know it all (like you do), how come we dont know this BASIC part of photosynthesis?

Molecular evolution and genetic engineering of C4 photosynthetic enzymes.
M. Miyao (2003).

Prospects for crop improvement through the genetic manipulation of photosynthesis: morphological and biochemical aspects of light capture.
P. Horton (2000).

Time for some names morgan.. because you dont have facts.. but the link was nifty, but not accurate.

Still no POP?

Archer asks:
"why are we (as a planet) spending billions trying to develope higher yield, faster growing food crops?"

Good question. Why don't you ask Monsanto?

I sure don't know the answer.

Hi Amaranth:

I went to google to check on some faint data about life forms using a means other than photosynthis and found my sought after ocean vents info,

Ocean Planet:Recently Revealed 1Far from sunlight, sulfur supports strange life forms ... Ocean Hydrothermal Chemistry - including a diagram on Vents Geochemistry; The Deep-Sea Research ...
seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/ HTML/oceanography_recently_revealed1.html - 8k - Cached - Similar pages


Ocean Planet: Popular Science - Creatures of the Thermal Vents... minerals leached from the rock, the water heats and rises to the ocean floor to form a vent. ... Studying the life cycle of vent organisms is difficult. ...
seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/ps_vents.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages


Ocean: Hydrothermaltemperatures over 1000 ?C, is erupting to form new oceanic crust. ... Lo'ihi Underwater Volcanic Vent Mission Probe NASA's search for life elsewhere in the ...
www.resa.net/nasa/ocean_hydrothermal.htm - 59k - Cached - Similar pages


AMNH - Life FormsThis oxygen, which is present in abundance throughout the ocean, is a waste product of ... The Three Best-Understood Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Life-Forms. ...
www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/ expeditions/blacksmokers/life_forms.html - 16k - Cached - Similar pages


Life in Extreme Environments | The Astrobiology Web | Your Online ...The intraterrestrials Deep in the Earth's crust, undreamt-of life forms are ... Hydrothermal vent life from the Smithsnoian's Ocean Planet Exhibition, ...
www.astrobiology.com/extreme.html - 40k - Cached - Similar pages

This could provid part of the answer. Imagine a planet locked in static position with tidal forces pulling most of the water towards the Brown Dwarf. The heat on the part faceing the "star" combined with the sulfur output of vents, on a very large scale, produce the life forms we see around our own vents. The people living mostly on the dark side harvest stuff like worms and crabs and fungi from around the edges which provide a temperate zone. Then life moves on.

I am not aware of anthing about sunlight that is amndatory for a human style, or almost, life cycle but I will stand corrected if wrong.

That is the end of the expirement for me. I do not want to waste space with more conjecture.
jjw

Nice links, Jim. I'll see what flight my fancy takes after I get some more reading done.

Amaranth