Two stars born at the same time, from the same natal material, and with the same mass are 'identical twins', and as such might be expected to possess identical physical attributes. But this paper reports that a pair of twin stars have surface temperatures that differ by ∼300 K and luminosities that differ by ∼50 per cent. These surprising dissimilarities suggest that one of the twins may have been delayed by several hundred thousand years in its formation relative to its sibling.
- Keivan G. Stassun
- Robert D. Mathieu
- Aaron Geller
