A newly discovered binary star system appears to be behaving strangely, astronomers have said.
The system is so unusual that it is thought that there may be only 10 of them in the infinite Milky Way galaxy.
“The Independent” writes that it has all the conditions to cause a kilonova or simply explained, an explosion that occurs when neutron stars collide and this can be seen across the universe.
“We know that the Milky Way has at least 100 billion stars and likely hundreds of billions more. This binary system is actually a 1 in 10 billion system. Before our study, the analysis was that one or two such systems should exist in a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way,” said astronomer Andre-Nicolas Chene.
The twin star system twinkles in X-ray scans and is massive. But it is very unusual because the two stars orbit each other in a “strange circular” orbit. This orbit helped astronomers discover that one of the stars is a faint supernova. This phenomenon occurs when a star has used up all its energy and the core is quenched, followed by a weak explosion.
In another case, the orbit would be an ellipse, but since there was not enough energy left in this star to trigger a big explosion, the two stars came closer and revolved around each other in a circular orbit.
In time, they will melt and send powerful gravitational waves through the cosmos, leaving behind elements like silver and gold. The star system is strange, but scientists hope that one like it can help understand kilonovas, these huge explosions that could be the source of the universe’s gold.
