Some stars, like this blue straggler, glow with the light from surrounding stars. This photograph was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997.
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NASA
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NASA
Blue Stars Cheer-up Astronomers
Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to learn more about a unique type of star called a blue straggler. Blue stragglers are stars located in densely packed globular clusters. They are about twice as massive and one-fifth as old compared to the other stars in the cluster, which are though to have formed around the same time and in a similar manner. For years astronomers have wondered how these unusual stars form. The two main theories are based on two different stars combining into one, which we see as a blue straggler. One theory says that the two different stars are in a binary system eventually merge into one. The other theory says that the two different stars happen to randomly collide in the cluster. The pictures from the HST support the first theory, that blue stragglers are formed from a binary system.What's New on the Site?
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