Detecting a pair of stars

A pair of giant yellow stars, spinning so close together that they form a peanut-shaped object in the universe, newly discovered in a galaxy near us. Astronomers say that similar pairs of coincidences may be the source of some unusual supernova explosions.

The pair of peanut stars is in a small galaxy called Holmberg IX , 12 million light-years away, the first observed system of this type. It was discovered thanks to the Large Binocular telescope on Graham Mountain in Arizona, USA.

The two stars are so close together that sometimes they stick together to form peanuts.(Photo: .nsf.gov)

"This is the brightest star we found in Holmberg IX," said lead researcher José Prieto from Ohio State University in Columbus, USA. It is about 100,000 times brighter than our sun at the visible wavelength.

In a 270-day period, the team found that the star faded twice. This situation can only be explained by the fact that there are two stars around each other, so they will periodically block the neighbors' light. Its shape also shows that these two stars are so bulging that they intertwine in part, creating a striking figure.

When reviewing old data, the team also found a pair of similar yellow giant stars, in the Small Magellanic Cloud - a satellite of the Milky Way galaxy.