For the first time, the properties of a rare, extremely massive, and young binary star system are determined. Thanks to NASA’s Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite and ground-based telescopes.
Surprising astronomers, the binary is found to consist of the Universe’s two most massive and luminous types of stars– O-stars. The system is one the most extreme binaries known, as it has a combined mass of about 100 suns. It is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud — our Milky Way’s satellite galaxy.
FUSE project scientist George Sonneborn of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md said,
The merger of two massive stars to make a single super star of over 80 suns could lead to an object like Eta Carinae, which might have looked like LH54-425 one million years ago. Finding stars this massive so early in their life is very rare.
The stars of the system — known as LH54-425 — have been found to be orbiting so close to each other that they are likely to merge with their evolution.
In the process, it produces a single extremely massive star similar to the more massive member of the Eta Carinae — Milky Way Galaxy’s one of the most massive and luminous stars with perhaps 100 solar masses — binary system.
