Ever wonder what happens when stars get into a fight?
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured a striking image of a gas cloud produced by a confrontation between two stellar objects.
Like humans, stars change with age and ultimately die.
Unlike humans, though, this change occurs through a phase where, having burned all the hydrogen in its core, the orb swells into a bright red giant star, which will eventually shed its outer layers, leaving behind only its core: a hot and dense white dwarf.
For star system HD101584, the “death process,” according to study leader Hans Olofsson, was essentially sped up as the red giant grew large enough to swallow its lower-mass partner.
In response, the smaller star spiralled toward the giant’s core. But instead of colliding, it triggered an outburst, leaving the large star’s gas layers dramatically scattered and its core exposed.
As a deadly blow to the already defeated gas layers, jets of gas blasted through the previously ejected material, forming those beautiful blue and red blobs you see in the nebula.
There is a silver lining to this stellar fight (aside from the kaleidoscopic photos): The discovery can help astronomers better understand the final evolution of stars like our Sun.
“Currently, we can describe the death processes common to many Sun-like stars, but we cannot explain why or exactly how they happen,” co-author Sofia Ramstedt, of Sweden’s Uppsala University, said in a statement.
“HD101584 gives us important clues to solve this puzzle,” she continued. “With detailed images of the environment of HD101584, we can make the connection between the giant star it was before and the stellar remnant it will soon become.”
ALMA and APEX (the European Southern Observatory’s Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) played a crucial role in enabling the team to prove the gas cloud.
“This stunning image of the circumstellar environment of HD101584 would not have been possible without the exquisite sensitivity and angular resolution provided by ALMA,” ESO’s Elizabeth Humphreys boasted.
For now, the two stars at the center of this complex nebula are too close together and too far away for study. ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert, will allow astronomers a closer look at the feuding pair.
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