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VFTS 352
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VFTS 352
VFTS 352 is a contact binary star system about 160,000 light years away in the Tarantula Nebula, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is the most massive and earliest spectral type overcontact system known.
The discovery of this O-type binary star system made use of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, and the description was published on 13 October 2015. VFTS 352 is composed of two massive stars of almost equal size that orbit each other in less than 27 hours. Both are extremely hot and luminous and are so close that their atmospheres overlap. The two stars are rotating at a rate equal to their orbital period; that is, they are tidally locked.
Massive stars like the two components of VFTS 352 are the primary source of oxygen in the universe, produced in their interiors via the CNO cycle and then released to the interstellar environment by a supernova explosion.
The future of VFTS 352 is uncertain, and there are two possible scenarios. If the two stars merge, a very rapidly rotating star will be produced. If it keeps spinning rapidly it might end its life in a long-duration gamma-ray burst. In a second hypothetical scenario, the components would end their lives in supernova explosions, forming a close binary black hole system, hence a potential gravitational wave source through black hole–black hole merger.
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VFTS 352
VFTS 352 is a contact binary star system about 160,000 light years away in the Tarantula Nebula, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is the most massive and earliest spectral type overcontact system known.
The discovery of this O-type binary star system made use of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, and the description was published on 13 October 2015. VFTS 352 is composed of two massive stars of almost equal size that orbit each other in less than 27 hours. Both are extremely hot and luminous and are so close that their atmospheres overlap. The two stars are rotating at a rate equal to their orbital period; that is, they are tidally locked.
Massive stars like the two components of VFTS 352 are the primary source of oxygen in the universe, produced in their interiors via the CNO cycle and then released to the interstellar environment by a supernova explosion.
The future of VFTS 352 is uncertain, and there are two possible scenarios. If the two stars merge, a very rapidly rotating star will be produced. If it keeps spinning rapidly it might end its life in a long-duration gamma-ray burst. In a second hypothetical scenario, the components would end their lives in supernova explosions, forming a close binary black hole system, hence a potential gravitational wave source through black hole–black hole merger.