The Sun Has a Twin

…and it might be trying to kill us?

Courtesy of The Good Stuff

It is summer in the northern hemisphere. For most people, that means beach parties and bocce ball, but for me, it means war. I must don my gooey armor of sunscreen and once again do battle with my mortal enemy — the Sun.

The Sun always wins eventually, but my pasty white skin puts up a valiant fight before I must retreat into the shadowy apartment from whence I came.

But while I may be no match for its nuclear fire, our Sun isn’t particularly noteworthy. It’s not the biggest star in the galaxy, and it’s not going to become something cool, like a black hole, someday. It’s just a middle-aged, yellow dwarf star of average size, inhabiting a part of the galaxy of no real significance. It’s downright boring in the grand scheme of celestial objects.

But it’s the only star we’ve got.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Billions of years ago, the Sun had a twin. And it’s still out there somewhere. And it might be trying to kill all of us — not just my pasty self.

Astrophotography by Terry Hancock Used with permission/Moment/Getty

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