Astronomers discover formation of Blue Straggler Star
An international team of astronomers has captured direct evidence of a Blue Straggler Star forming through mass transfer in a binary system. By observing the star cluster Collinder 261, researchers confirmed that the star is gaining material from its companion, validating long-standing theories about their evolution.
Why it matters
This discovery provides critical observational data that helps scientists understand the life cycles of stars and the mechanisms behind stellar rejuvenation.
In an international collaboration, astronomers from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), along with their counterparts from India, Italy, France and the U.S., have discovered the formation of a Blue Straggler Star (BSS) whose origin and evolution has long puzzled astronomers.
The BSS is a peculiar class of stars found in star clusters that appear hotter, brighter and more massive than their peers, and in a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters astronomers have provided direct evidence of how such stars are created.
“The most widely accepted explanation is that these stars gain mass from a companion or through stellar mergers, effectively rejuvenating themselves. Yet, direct observational evidence of such formation processes has remained extremely rare,” said the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
To investigate this, the IIA astronomers studied a binary star system TIC 327546480 in the old open star cluster Collinder 261, located about 9,500 light-years away.
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