Two Massive Stars are So Close that They'll Merge to Create a Mega Star

Astronomers have caught two stars in the act. It turns out that the stars of MY Camelopardalis binary system are so close that they'll eventually merge and create one, supermassive star in the future.

In order to get a better glimpse of the system MY Cam, the researchers used observations from the Calar Alto Observatory. This revealed that the system is the most massive to be seen so far. It consists of two stars of spectral type O, which are blue, very, hot, bright and 38 and 32 times the size of our own sun. More interesting is the fact that these two stars are very close to each other, with an orbital period of less than 1.2 days, which is the shortest orbital period is these types of stars.

Stars, like our own sun, that move alone in the galaxy are relatively rare. Instead, they're usually paired with a companion star or stars, creating a binary system or a multiple system. In these systems, all stars describe their orbits around a common center of mass. In particular, the stars much more massive than the sun contain an equivalent mass to many suns and ten to always appear in company.

In the case of MY Cam, it's unusual for stars to fit so easily into such a small orbit-especially considering how massive they are. That's why the astronomers believe that the two stars are actually in touch and that the material of their outer layers is mixing. This gives place to a common envelop, and makes MY Cam one of the most massive contact binaries known.

The most interesting aspect, though, is the fact that it's likely that these two stars will merge in the future, creating a mega star. Currently, the scientists aren't sure about the details of this merger process since it's never been seen before. Yet it does show that other massive stars likely formed the same way-when two stars came together.

The findings are published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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