Scientists spot distant stars engaged in a dangerous dance – BGR

We only see one star, our sun, up close every day, but the Milky Way is filled with it. It is estimated at more than 300 billion the number of stars in our galaxy alone, and perhaps up to 400 billion. With so much sky to cover, scientists are doing their best to catalog and observe as much as they can, but a new discovery by astronomers at the University of Sydney deserves special attention.

At about 8000 light-years from Earth, a pair of stars is tight against each other, circling around each other every hundred days or so , and one of them is about to die. When it finally bites into the dust, the researchers think that it could produce one of the most energetic explosions in the universe.

The study on the binary star system, published in Nature Astronomy, describes the pair of stars impressively. As they spin around each other, the stars spurt out of the dust into space forming a spiral pattern, forming a shape similar to that of the petals of a rose. But, as beautiful as it is, this star system could prove extremely dangerous for anything that is taken in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Astronomers believe that one of the two stars in the pair is on the verge of death. The combination of the size and heat of the star, as well as its fast motion being part of the binary system, suggests that it could produce a colossal explosion of the supernova sufficiently violent to cause a burst of rays. gamma.

Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic events in the universe, apart from the big bang itself, and are thought to be created when a huge star collapses, producing huge amounts of radiation in a narrow funnel and at extreme distances. In fact, the destructive power of the explosion is so intense that even at 8000 light-years away, it could deprive the Earth of much of its atmosphere if we land directly on the path of l & # 39; explosion.

However, the star does not seem to be directed towards our solar system. Therefore, if it produced such a burst, it is unlikely that we are affected. Researchers are not sure that this will produce a gamma burst, but this possibility alone is exciting for astronomers.

Image Source: Professor Peter Tuthill / ESO