Alternative Stellar Lifestyle: Common, Curious, Solved at Last
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - 13:53
in Astronomy & Space
Half of all stars are in binaries -- pairs of stars that orbit each other. Half of binary stars orbit so close that gravitational interaction significantly affects their evolution and demise. Today, scientists led by Robert Mathieu, a professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his former student Natalie Gosnell confirmed one of the possible explanations for a common group of exceptions: the blue stragglers.