Do we have 2 suns instead of 1?

Question

The other day I’ve heard a lady talking about the possibility that we might have to suns. She gave this scientific explanation that I didn't really understand about something covering the other sun. Has anyone heard this before? And if you have, can you explain it to me?

Answer 1

We have four sons.

Answer 2

I'd really like to have heard this woman's explanation. There is only one. While as humans we are not perfect, we've managed to create some really decent technology where we would have been able to detect a second sun.

By definition:
solar system
n.
The sun (ONE) together with the nine planets and all other celestial bodies that orbit the sun. A system of planets or other bodies orbiting another star.

But it is possible...see the second link below.

Answer 3

That is only a little more true than the assertation that the world is flat. The we humans can't know arguement is wrong.

What makes it a little more true, is that some people speculate that Jupiter was a "sun" that wasn't dense enough to ignite. As for a sun hiding behind our own, that is rather foolish. In a situation like that, you'd have a binary star system and the suns would orbit each other, and we'd be WELL aware of it.

Answer 4

The originators of the Nemesis Star theory in 1984 (Raup & Sepkoski) claimed that the mass extinctions which occur about every 32 million years were caused by asteroids and comets which were thrown out of the Oort Cloud by an unseen binary companion to our Sun (The Oort cloud is a sphere of comet like bodies past the orbit of Pluto).
In the mid 1990s when debunking this hypothesis was a popular pastime among astrophysicists we didn't have the capability to survey the sky in the infrared (we do now thanks to Spitzer Space Telescope). If there were a dim companion to the sun, we would have seen it by now with Spitzer. (or at least evidence of it)

Answer 5

Hmm-m.

I read En's reply with great interest since she advertises that she is a teacher. As for my own ideas, I cannot accept Jupiter as a Sun (Star) at this time. I also only see evidence of one Sun when I go outside. So, stupid as that might sound, I think I will stick with the one Sun idea for a while longer.

Answer 6

Pure utter nonsense. The woman is on crack.

Makes about as much sense as the advanced civilization that exists inside the earth with a portal to the surface at the North Pole.

Makes for great science fiction.

Answer 7

I think she was talking about the star Pegasus. Around Pegasus their is a large very hot mass that rotates around the sun, many people have speculated that this is a second sun. However most believe that it is in effect a "hot jupiter" or gass giant that is so close to the Pegasus star that the gass inside it is super heated.

Answer 8

Well, it might not be so far out as some people think:

"Like a thorn in the side of mainstream researchers, Muller's Nemesis theory -- that our Sun has a companion star responsible for recurring episodes of wholesale death and destruction here on Earth -- seems to reemerge periodically like microbes after a mass extinction. "

Also:

"NEWPORT BEACH, CA (April 24, 2006) - The Binary Research Institute (BRI) has found that orbital characteristics of the recently discovered planetoid, "Sedna", demonstrate the possibility that our sun might be part of a binary star system. A binary star system consists of two stars gravitationally bound orbiting a common center of mass. Once thought to be highly unusual, such systems are now considered to be common in the Milky Way galaxy. "

And finally:

"Moreover, a binary orbit motion of our sun provides a solution to a number of solar system formation theory enigmas including angular momentum. For these reasons, BRI has concluded our sun is most likely part of a long cycle binary system. "

Cool stuff -- got to go read it for myself!!

Answer 9

Nope, there's only the one. For something to be a star, it must have enough mass to start nuclear fusion in it's dense core. There's no way you could hide the gravitational fields that another star, even a tiny one, would create. We'd know if there was something even the size of Pluto out to the orbit of Pluto in our solar system.

Edit: For reference, a brown dwarf star, or the smallest star still capable of fusion, is about 13 Jupiter masses. Jupiter didn't even come close to being a star.

Answer 10

I have heard the idea that the Sun had a distant but currently unknown companion star, but I have seen no evidence presented. So I do not accept the idea.

Answer 11

She could have been referring to Jupiter. It seems that many scientists believe that Jupiter was on its way to becoming a star on its own but did not have all of the necessary material to continue adding to its mass and begin nuclear fusion. Just a guess, hope this helps.