Warwick: Stars Need a Partner to Spin Universe's Brightest Explosions

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Warwick: Stars Need a Partner to Spin Universe's Brightest Explosions

Post by bystander » Thu Jan 16, 2020 5:22 pm

Stars Need a Partner to Spin Universe's Brightest Explosions
University of Warwick | 2020 Jan 13
Image
Artist’s impression of gamma-ray burst with orbiting binary star
Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick

Stars need to be in binary systems to create gamma-ray bursts, University of Warwick study finds; Gamma-ray bursts are the universe’s brightest explosions, caused by massive collapsing stars; The tidal effects from a companion star keep the collapsing star spinning and producing a jet of material; Thousands of binary star systems modelled for study.

When it comes to the biggest and brightest explosions seen in the Universe, University of Warwick astronomers have found that it takes two stars to make a gamma-ray burst.

New research solves the mystery of how stars spin fast enough to create conditions to launch a jet of highly energetic material into space, and has found that tidal effects like those between the Moon and the Earth are the answer.

The discovery ... has been made using simulated models of thousands of binary star systems, that is, solar systems that have two stars orbiting one another.

More than half of all stars are located in binary star systems and this new research has shown that they need to be in binary star systems in order for the massive explosions to be created. ...

Binary population synthesis models for core-collapse gamma-ray burst progenitors ~ A. A. Chrimes, E. R. Stanway, J. J. Eldridge
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