If Sol is a 3rd generation star, what are the names of its father and grandfather?
1) No names. The stars of a later generations don’t generally arise out a specific former generation star. Dying stars return their material to the interstellar medium, enriching the nebulae out of which the newer stars form. Generations 1, 2, 3 correspond to the star populations III, II, and I (reverse sorting). 2) “Stellar populations are categorized as I, II, and III, according to the order in which the groups were first recognized, with each succeeding group having decreasing metal content. Current theory explains the average ages of stars of these groups to be reversed from their order of discovery. While older stars do have fewer heavy elements, the fact that all stars observed have some heavier elements poses something of a puzzle, and the current explanation for this proposes the existence of hypothetical metal-free Population III stars in the early universe. Soon after the Big Bang, without metals, it is believed that only stars with masses hundred of times that of the Sun cou
