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This massive triple star system is about to become supernova and could be the first gamma burst ever seen in our galaxy.
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An amazing image of a massive binary star system recently discovered. Nicknamed Apep in reference to an ancient Egyptian deity, it could be the first gamma-ray staqr system in our galaxy.(Photo: ESO / Callingham et al.)

Astronomers have found in our own galaxy a unique "pinwheel" star system, which will eventually die in a gigantic explosion never seen before in the Milky Way, a new study reports.

Scientists believe that one of the stars – located about 8000 light-years from Earth – is the first known candidate of the Milky Way to be able to produce a dangerous burst of gamma rays, among the most energetic events in the world. the universe, when it explodes and dies.

"It's the first system of its kind to be discovered in our own galaxy," said study co-author Joseph Callingham, astronomer of the Dutch Institute of Radio Astronomy. "We never expected to find such a system in our own backyard," he said in a statement.

The authors named the Apep star system the name of a serpent deity of ancient Egyptian mythology, the deadly enemy of the sun god Ra. The co-author of the study, Peter Tuthill, of the University of Sydney, said: "The name seemed appropriate, as the sinuous dust plume resembled a coiled snake fighting a central star."

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Apep's stellar winds created the dust cloud that surrounds the system, which consists of a binary star with a weaker companion.

The star is spinning so fast that she is about to tear herself up. Scientists do not know when the star system will eventually explode as a supernova, probably in thousands of years, but when it does, it will be spectacular.

Gamma-ray bursts are among the most powerful explosions in the universe. With a duration ranging from a few thousandths of a second to a few hours, they can release as much energy as the sun emits throughout its life, according to the study.

Fortunately, the star does not seem to aim the Earth because a gamma strike as close (in cosmic terms) could tear the ozone out of our atmosphere, greatly increasing our exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays.

Scientists believe that gamma-ray bursts could have caused a huge extinction event on Earth about 450 million years ago, reported CBC News.

The study was published Monday in the British journal Nature Astronomy.

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