Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile's Paranal Observatory, astronomers are observing two stars that are on the verge of colliding, Business Insider reported.
When this happens, they predicted that a massive stellar explosion known as a supernova will occur.
According to the scientists, the two cosmic bodies are white dwarf stars that are already dead. As white dwarves, these stars are very dense. Each white dwarf star's mass is almost equal to that of the Sun. They are considered as dead or dying because they have reached the final stages of their evolutionary state.
With the help of other powerful telescopes, Romano Corradi, a member of the scientific team, said he and his colleagues were able to study the stars' characteristics. Moreover, they were able to identify the orbital paths of the two cosmic bodies.
"Further observations made with telescopes in the Canary Islands allowed us to determine the orbit of the two stars and deduce both the masses of the two stars and their separation," Corradi said in a statement according to Universe Today.
Based on their findings, the two stars orbit each other every 4.2 hours. However, due to the gravitational pull from these two, the distance between them is gradually decreasing. The astronomers calculated that in about 700 million years, the two stars will collide with one another and merge as one.
As one big star, it will have a mass of 1.76 times greater than that of the Sun. Since it exceeds the solar mass limit of 1.4, the star will not be able to hold its own mass and eventually explode or cause a supernova event.
Based on previous studies, the light produced by supernova is brighter than that emitted by other galaxies. The radiation levels produced by these stellar explosions are also higher than what the Sun emits.
The findings of Corradi and his team were detailed in a report published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature.
