<p>Stars are not like animals, with well-defined parents. They form from interstellar gas clouds that in turn originate from stellar winds and supernova ejecta from other stars in a mixture with primordial gas. It is unlikely that the sun is &quot;descended&quot; to a great degree from any particular past star.</p>
<p>(Even if it had been, the sun formed about 18 galactic rotations ago and we are nowhere near the bodies in that past neighbourhood now, due to mixing)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-24T07:28:19.497Z
2020-08-24T07:28:19.497Z
Anders Sandberg
<p>It is widely believed that before the Sun was another star, more pristine in its composition (mostly Hydrogen and perhaps some Helium). And maybe before it was yet another. <a href="https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/ask-ethan-how-many-generations-of-stars-formed-before-our-sun-b6878f7ae073" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This blog</a> explains this via the distribution of materials. Now, these previous stars that pre-date the Sun, must have been massive, right? If so, shouldn't they have formed a neutron star or black hole once their lives ended? But there isn't one of those at the center of our solar system. What other stellar evolution paradigm would explain this?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-24T07:44:47.043Z
Also read https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/16311/how-can-there-be-1-000-stellar-ancestors-before-our-sun and https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/513111/is-the-remnant-of-the-solar-systems-parent-star-still-drifting-in-outer-space
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-24T08:33:45.973Z
Stars make an orbit around the galactic center in $\approx$ 160million years, so we are $\approx$ 60 orbits late...
peterh
<the-sun><stellar-evolution><neutron-star>
If the sun is a second or third generation star, where is the neutron star?
Rohit Pandey
# If the sun is a second or third generation star, where is the neutron star?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-08-24)

It is widely believed that before the Sun was another star, more pristine in its composition (mostly Hydrogen and perhaps some Helium). And maybe before it was yet another. [This blog](https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/ask-ethan-how-many-generations-of-stars-formed-before-our-sun-b6878f7ae073) explains this via the distribution of materials. Now, these previous stars that pre-date the Sun, must have been massive, right? If so, shouldn't they have formed a neutron star or black hole once their lives ended? But there isn't one of those at the center of our solar system. What other stellar evolution paradigm would explain this?

**Tags:** the-sun, stellar-evolution, neutron-star

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Also read https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/16311/how-can-there-be-1-000-stellar-ancestors-before-our-sun and https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/513111/is-the-remnant-of-the-solar-systems-parent-star-still-drifting-in-outer-space  
> **username_2**: Stars make an orbit around the galactic center in $\approx$ 160million years, so we are $\approx$ 60 orbits late...  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-08-24. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

Stars are not like animals, with well-defined parents. They form from interstellar gas clouds that in turn originate from stellar winds and supernova ejecta from other stars in a mixture with primordial gas. It is unlikely that the sun is "descended" to a great degree from any particular past star.

(Even if it had been, the sun formed about 18 galactic rotations ago and we are nowhere near the bodies in that past neighbourhood now, due to mixing)


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