Research of drifting stars provides insight on how planets form

A star drifting away from it's original place.

The star's name is Horologii and it belongs to the Horologium ( aka. The Clock) constellation. It is also considered to be a part of the Hyades stream, a large group of stars that move together in the same direction. (Hyades is well-known because it can be seen by naked eye. The first recordings of this cluster date back to the ancient Greek civilization.) Previous studies of Horologii have shown that it has a planet, roughly 2 times the size of Jupiter, orbiting around it. None of the researchers were able to discover something about the origin of this star, though. The first ones to examine the star were a team of astronomers, whose leader was Sylvie Vauclair from the University of Toulouse. They used an interesting method in their study.

A high-quality picture of Hyades on Wikipedia

Do you know how geologists examine our planet by listening to the subtle seismic waves? Well, apparently the same method can be applied to stars. By listening to the sound waves that stars emit, scientists are able to find out more about their inner structure. This innovative method was called 'asteroseismology', and proved to be quite useful. If you're interested, here's what they found out about the star:

• average temperature 6150 degrees Kelvin (5877 Celsius).
• mass 1.25 times that of our Sun.
• age over 625 million years.

The star is thought to have formed withing the Hyades cluster, but it drifter away over time. Currently it's located around 130 light-years from it's original place. This new information can provide useful insight on how do galaxies ,and especially Milky way, have formed.