太陽そっくりの星たちが明かす、太陽系「大移動」の道のり

2026-03-13 国立天文台

東京都立大学と国立天文台を中心とする研究チームは、ESAの位置天文衛星Gaiaの大規模データを用い、太陽と色や明るさが類似する恒星(ソーラーツイン)6594個を抽出して年齢分布を解析した。その結果、太陽と同年代(約40~60億年前)に生まれた太陽そっくりの恒星が太陽系近傍に多数存在することが判明した。これにより、太陽系だけでなく同様の恒星群が誕生後まもなく天の川銀河内を大きく移動した可能性が示された。また、この移動は銀河中心の棒状構造の形成と関係し、その形成開始が約70億年前である可能性が示唆された。太陽系の起源や銀河構造の進化を理解する新たな手がかりとなる成果である。

太陽そっくりの星たちが明かす、太陽系「大移動」の道のり
太陽系と太陽そっくりの星たちの大移動のイメージ。(クレジット:国立天文台)

<関連情報>

Gaia DR3 GSP-Specの太陽双子 II. 年齢分布と太陽の移動への影響 Solar twins in Gaia DR3 GSP-Spec II. Age distribution and its implications for the Sun’s migration

Takuji Tsujimoto, Daisuke Taniguchi, Alejandra Recio-Blanco, Pedro A. Palicio and Patrick de Laverny
Astronomy & Astrophysics  Published:12 March 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202658914

Abstract

Solar twins are among the most powerful tracers of Galactic disk evolution owing to their unique property of sharing nearly solar metallicities ([Fe/H] ≈ 0) while spanning a wide range of ages. To grasp solar twins as relics of Galaxy evolution, individual twins must be tagged with ages. A sufficiently large and well-characterized stellar sample then allows us to construct an age distribution that encodes the star formation history beyond our local region, modulated by the efficiency of radial migration of stars. Based on our catalog of 6594 high-quality local (≲300 pc) solar twins from the Gaia Data Release 3 spectroscopic (GSP-Spec) catalog, we derived their age distribution after carefully deconvolving the selection function. We find two distinct features: a narrow peak around ∼2 Gyr and a broad bump extending over ∼4 − 6 Gyr. First, we argue that the former corresponds to a relatively recent burst of star formation that occurred in the disk, including at least a local region within a few kiloparsecs of the Sun, which is in good agreement with previous results deduced from independent works. On the other hand, the older bump, closely associated with the Sun’s birth epoch, is intriguing since this finding challenges the predicted presence of a corotation barrier built by the Galactic bar, which is thought to prevent stars born inside RGC ≈ 6 kpc from reaching the solar neighborhood. We propose that the large number of local twins with ages between 4 and 6 Gyr provides compelling evidence that the Sun’s long-distance (≥3 kpc) migration is shared by many inner disk stars. This, in turn, suggests a possible link with the epoch of bar formation, which may have triggered enhanced star formation in the inner disk and induced efficient radial migration.

1701物理及び化学
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