esa

Vampire Stars: Evolution and Destruction of Hot, High Mass Binary Systems | ESA ESO Hubble HD Video

9mo ago

SOURCE

Description

Visit my website at http://www.junglejoel.com - this video shows the creation of a so-called "vampire star." Recent research using ESO telescopes has shown that most high-mass stars exist in pairs. They're up to one million times brighter than our Sun, and evolve about one thousand times more quickly. As the stars evolve they expand slowly. The more massive brighter star expands first, until the outer layers start to strongly feel the gravitational pull of the companion -deforming the star into a teardrop shape. The companion then starts to suck material from the primary star. When the primary has been stripped of its entire hydrogen-rich envelope it shrinks. At this point the secondary star is now rotating very fast and has an oblate shape. The hot compact star continues to fuse heavier and heavier elements in its core, until it explodes as a supernova. During the explosion a neutron star is created, and probably escapes the system. The secondary is left behind alone. It swells up and becomes a red supergiant with a radius several times larger than the orbit of the Earth around our Sun. Eventually, the second star will also explode as a supernova. Please rate and comment, thanks! Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/S.E. de Mink

esa

Vampire Stars: Evolution and Destruction of Hot, High Mass Binary Systems | ESA ESO Hubble HD Video

Tags

Description