Two Mega-Stars Are Embraced in a "Kiss of Death" | Space Video
3,103 views · Published 22 October 2015 · 1:22 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: CoconutScienceLab · 2015 · Science & Technology
More space news and info at: http://www.coconutsciencelab.com - the double star system VFTS 352 is located about 160,000 light-years away in the Tarantula Nebula - a remarkable region that is the most active nursery of new stars in the nearby Universe. New observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed that this pair of young stars is among the most extreme and strangest yet found. VFTS 352 is composed of two very hot, bright and massive stars that orbit each other in little more than a day. The centers of these stars are separated by just 12 million kilometers. In fact, the stars are so close that their surfaces overlap and a bridge has formed between them. VFTS 352 is not only the most massive known in this tiny class of “overcontact binaries” - it has a combined mass of about 57 times that of the Sun - but it also contains the hottest components, with surface temperatures above 40,000 degrees Celsius. Astronomers predict that VFTS 352 will face a cataclysmic fate in one of two ways. The first potential outcome is the merging of the two stars, which would likely produce a rapidly rotating, and possibly magnetic, gigantic single star - eventually ending its life in one of the most energetic explosions in the Universe, known as a long-duration gamma-ray burst. In the second possibility, the components would likely end their lives in supernova explosions, forming a close binary system of black holes. Such a remarkable object would be an intense source of gravitational waves. Please rate and comment, thanks! Image Credits: ESO, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), R. Gendler Animation: L. Calçada
