Birth of a Blue Straggler (IMAGE)

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Birth of a Blue Straggler

Caption

Birth of a blue straggler star. Left: A normal star in a binary system gravitationally pulls in matter from an aging companion star that has swelled to a bloated red giant that is a few hundred times its original size. Right: After a couple hundred million years, the red giant star has burned out and collapsed to the white dwarf that shines intensely in ultraviolet wavelengths. The companion star has bulked up on hydrogen siphoned from the red giant to become much hotter, brighter and bluer.

Credit

Credit: NASA/ESA, A. Feild (STScI)

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