Huge 'vampire' in the universe

Like vampires in fantasy movies, super-big stars come close to another star to "dance" and quietly suck the material of the other object.

Some scientists use the Southern Europe Observatory's huge telescope in Chile to study O-type stars in the Milky Way. They are very hot and extremely bright stars with a surface temperature of more than 30,000 degrees C. Star type O has a short life cycle and their 'life' is quite intense, but they are important for too evolution of galaxies.

"O-type stars are extremely large, at least 15 times more massive than the sun and about a million times brighter ," said Hugues Sana, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Illustration of O type star spectacle smoking animals
substance from its "companion" in the binary star system.

O-type stars often end their lives with an intense explosion. The light from those explosions is so strong that humans can observe them from anywhere in the universe.

The team found that more than 70% of O-type stars revolve around another star, creating binary star systems, Space said. In the binary star system, the two stars revolve around each other.

It is worth noting that O-type stars have an unusual relationship with their ' companion' during the binary star system.

'We know most of the great stars exist in binary systems, but we never thought they would move near such a companion star' , Selma de Mink, an astronomer of the Institute of Telescope Science writings in America, speak.

Astronomers predict that, due to O-type "carnivorous behavior" , about one-third of the binary star will merge to form a star. This means that the binary star system is much more popular than all previous calculations of the scientific world and the super-massive stars in the binary star system evolved in a completely different process from the single stars.

Although only 1% of the stars in the universe, O-type stars have a huge impact on their surroundings. Wind and shock from O-star stars can start or end the formation of other stars, the team said. In the course of existence, "vampire stars" create all the heavy elements in the universe. Heavy elements are important for life.

The team's findings are published in the Science journal Science.