Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

pretty much all solar systems are remnants of the original first generation stars though, yeah? if the universe started with nothing but hydrogen, that was the source of the first gen stars, then it took those dying off to give us He,O,C, etc.

The one that gets me is the theory that Earth is at least a second generation planet. So, maybe Ryugu returned some of the material that survived from what made up the first gen planet(s) Earth was formed. The fact that Jupiter hasn't hoovered all of that up is also impressive.




Do we know, roughly and on average, which generation is our Sun? Is it only a second generation star? And how many generations should we expect to go through before we reach the black hole era and the heat death of the universe?


The sun is an “intermediate Population I” star, so relatively young (higher populations are older). Good overview of this topic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_population


Does this mean we might theoretically find rock in asteroids that contains evidence of life from planets that existed before earth did? Fossils, even?


Even if the previous generation of star systems were teaming with life it would seem to be still incredibly unlikely to find fossilized life in asteroids. You have to think of how much rock there is in a planetary body vs how much would have ever been anywhere near something alive.


....i expect tardigrades




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: