Scientists reported that the newly discovered and very rare binary star system is behaving very strangely, according to Russia Today.
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This system is so unusual that it is believed that there are only about 10 of them throughout our vast Milky Way galaxy.
This system has all the conditions to go on and unleash a macronova (also called a kilonova or a macronova), an explosion that occurs when two neutron stars collide, resulting in an explosion so powerful it can be detected across the universe.
NOIRLab astronomer and co-author of the new study, Andre-Nicolas Cheney, said: “We know that the Milky Way contains at least 100 billion stars and possibly hundreds of billions more. This wonderful binary system is basically one in ten billion.” In our study, the estimate was that only one or two systems should exist in a spiral galaxy such as the Milky Way.”
The astronomers who found it say the binary star system is bright in X-rays and has a high mass, but it is particularly unusual because the two stars orbit each other in what is said to be a “strange circular” path.
It appears to have formed when an exploding star or supernova died down, rather than the usual dramatic explosion.
Its strange orbit helped scientists discover that one of the two stars is an “exhausted” supernova, meaning that when the star used up its fuel, and its core collapsed, it exploded with a relatively weak explosion.
Normally, this explosion pushes stars into a long elliptical orbit, but there wasn’t enough energy left in the star to create such an explosion, so the two stars remained closely interconnected in a circular orbit.
Over time, they will merge, sending powerful gravitational waves through the universe and leaving behind heavy elements like silver and gold.
Although this star pair is strange in itself, scientists hope that finding systems like these better in the presence of kilonovas will help them better understand the dramatic explanations for what is believed to be the source of gold in the universe.
The system is known as CPD-29 2176, and it is located about 11,400 light-years from Earth. It was first spotted by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and subsequent observations using the 1.5-meter SMARTS telescope in Chile confirmed its unusual nature.
The findings are described in a new research paper, published in the journal Nature.
