New evidence suggests that stars at the heart of the Milky Way appear much younger than they actually are due to cosmic cannibalism, as they collide and merge with other stars, collecting more hydrogen and masquerading as rejuvenated, young-looking stars.
for murdering hundreds of girls to bathe in their supposedly restorative blood. The veracity of those accusations is questionable, at best, but the notion of resorting to arcane black magic in the quest for eternal youth persists., new evidence indicates that it can be very powerfully rejuvenating indeed – for stars.
"Through collisions and mergers, these stars collect more hydrogen. Although they were formed from an older population, they masquerade as rejuvenated, young-looking stars. They are like zombie stars; they eat their neighbors."on their long, looping orbits. And there are a lot of them. The galactic center is positively jostling with stars, the Milky Way's densely crowded hub.."If you aren't colliding into other people, then you are passing very closely by them.
Outside of that 0.01-parsec boundary, though, things get a little more violent. Because the stars are moving much more slowly, they don't have theto keep going when they encounter each other. Instead, they become snared in each other's gravity, resulting in a full collision that sees the stars moosh together to become one big star.
And it's in this process that some stars gain enough hydrogen to give them a more youthful appearance, even though they may be quite a bit older. But there's a trade-off. The more massive a star is, the shorter its lifespan.The comparison to vampires sort of falls down a bit there. But the findings do explain a curious feature of the star population in the galactic center: a puzzling.
Further observational and theoretical research could help shed light on these processes, and reveal the complex dynamics at play in a cosmic environment like no other in the galaxy.
Stars Milky Way Cosmic Cannibalism Rejuvenation Collisions Mergers
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Cannibal stars at the heart of the Milky Way stay young in a gruesome wayRobert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.
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