Coatlicue is the name given to the hypothetical

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

that gave rise to the Sun and then exploded as a

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

. Coatlicue would have been at least thirty times the mass of the Sun, and while on the

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...

its strong winds would have compressed the gas of the local nebula and given birth to hundreds of

s, including the Sun. The existence and the characteristics of this star were deduced from the presence of

aluminium-26 Aluminium-26 (26Al, Al-26) is a Radionuclide, radioactive isotope of the chemical element aluminium, decaying by either positron emission or electron capture to stable magnesium-26. The half-life of 26Al is 7.17 (717,000) years. This is far too s ...

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

s, which was expelled in the winds of the massive star.

Name

Cōātlīcue is the mother of the Sun in the Aztecs'

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...

. This name is unofficial; it was proposed by Matthieu Gounelle and Georges Meynet, the authors of an article in ''Astronomy & Astrophysics''.

Name

References

Further reading