For the first time, astronomers have positively identified a binary system that is destined to one day end up as a kilonova – the explosive result of a neutron star collision.
And, ironically, the key ingredient to this eventual fate is a pair of failed, fizzled supernovae. This phenomenon is thought to be so rare that there are only an estimated 10 such binary systems in the entire Milky Way. A closer study of this system should help scientists understand how these insane events evolve.
, the history-making neutron star collision observed by telescopes around the world. But these events are rare and, therefore, pretty mysterious. We've only seen a scant few neutron star mergers, and never before found a system destined to become one. When a bright X-ray flash was observed from the same part of the sky as the Be star in CPD-29 2176, astronomers Noel Richardson and Clarissa Pavao of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University took a closer look, ultimately identifying a portion of light not emitted by the Be star. That was the neutron star.
Usually, when a massive star goes supernova, it blasts off its outer material in a spectacular explosion, while the remaining core collapses down into a neutron star – an ultradense object up to about 2.4 times the mass of the Sun, packed into a sphere just 20 kilometers across.
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