HIPPARCOS Results for Solar Analogs
Giusa Cayrel de Strobel (Observatoire de Paris/Meudon) & Eileen D. Friel (NFS/Boston Univ.)
2. The purpose of studying solar analogs
The Sun is the only star for which almost all fundamental physical parameters
are known with good accuracy, i.e.: mass, chemical composition, age, effective
temperature, radius, luminosity, magnetohydrodynamic structure, atmospheric
velocity fields, etc. Furthermore, the new data of solar seismology have led
to a better knowledge of the Sun's internal structure and internal rotation.
Because the Sun is an intermediate-low mass star on the main-sequence, its
metal abundances can be interpreted as those which were produced by the
supernovae of various types, which have enriched the interstellar medium from
which this star was formed, about 4.6 Gyr ago. However, because of its
proximity, the Sun is too bright to allow the direct comparison of its light to
that coming from much fainter objects using identical observational techniques.
Whence arises our interest in finding stars resembling the Sun.
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