A lopsided pair of dead stars could reveal some of the universe’s secrets
Two dead stars, one larger than the other, will one day collide—and tell us valuable things about the universe. (Courtesy of Arecibo Observatory/University of Central Florida - William Gonzalez and Andy Torres./)Picture a pair of collapsed stars, light-years away, locked in a "dance" of death: a final embrace that will end in their collision. In about 500 million years, astronomers anticipate this exact scenario will play out in a system known as PSR J1913+1102. Two neutron stars will crash together, sending a shudder through the universe: the fabric of space and time will ripple in the form of gravitational waves.Most binary systems include two comparably sized neutron stars locked in a fiercely tight orbit. But PSR J1913+1102 contains a pair of mismatched neutron stars — one of them a pulsar — with masses that are 1.62 and 1.27 times the mass of the Sun. That makes it “the most asymmetric...