Two Totally Unique Star Systems Discovered

esocid writes "Astronomers have spied a faraway star system that is so unusual, it was one of a kind — until its discovery helped them pinpoint a second one that was much closer to home. In a paper published in a recent issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues suggest that these star systems are the progenitors of a rare type of supernova. In research funded by the National Science Foundation, they found a star system that is unusual, because it's what the astronomers have called a 'yellow supergiant eclipsing binary' — it contains two very bright, massive yellow stars that are very closely orbiting each other. In fact, the stars are so close together that a large amount of stellar material is shared between them, so that the shape of the system resembles a peanut."

Comments

Scrotal

[minginqunt]

A peanut? SPACEBALLS, more like.

Re:Aren't those configurations expected?

[jd]

The stars are very very close and very very large. You'd need some very precise conditions to arise, or:

• They'd merge
• The gravitational fields would screw up the star formation
• The gravitational waves in the oscillating system would necessarily damp it and cause the stars to collide
• The original seeding material would have collapsed to the common center of gravity
• The original seeding material would have flown apart
• The gasses the stars formed from would not have been uniform enough for two equal-sized stars to form
• The stellar nursary would have had another star close enough to disrupt/destroy the system
• One or both would have exploded early on, from the massive, continuous surface disruption

So, yes, they'll occur. Obviously, since they have. However, they are probably some of the rarest of stellar phenomena. Unique, no. Staggeringly rare, definitely.

Re:uh...

[ozbird]

This is Slashdot; April Fool's Day submissions will probably starting appearing around 3 April.