The Origin and Early History of the Sun and the Planetary System in the Context of Stellar Evolution

A plausible scenario for the early history of the sun can be constructed by combining the results of stellar astronomy with lunar and meteoritic chronologies. The meteorites apparently contain material exposed to two nucleosynthetic events, one about 108 yr and another a few 106 yr before solidification. Following II. Reeves, these are associated with supernovae occurring in star clusters in molecular clouds that formed during passage through successive galactic arm shocks. The Orion Trapezium Cluster may be a modern example; its density is such that encounters between members would have been close enough and frequent enough to have had major effects upon their circumstellar ‘solar nebulae,’ as would recurrent FU Ori-like eruptions of the stars themselves. The lunar bombardment continued for 7 × 108 yr following formation of our sun. If this represented disk cleanup, disks must persist for that long, and hence circumstellar activity may still be in progress around some young stars in the solar vicinity. The observed time decay of axial rotation and surface activity in solar-type stars can be extended backwards, and indicates that the ultraviolet radiation of the young sun would have had major photochemical consequences upon the primitive earth.