binary systems tagged posts

Black holes are fundamental to the structure of galaxies and critical in our understanding of gravity, space, and time. A stellar mass black hole is a type of black hole that forms from the gravitational collapse of a massive star at the end of its life cycle. These black holes typically have masses ranging from about 3 to 20 times the mass of our sun.

Sometimes black holes generate beams of ionized gas (plasma) that shoot outward at nearly light spee...

This is an artist’s impression of the clash of powerful stellar winds. Credit: NASA/C. Reed

The new source confirmed that binary systems with strong colliding stellar winds comprise a separate new population of high-energy gamma-ray sources. Massive binary star systems with highly luminous and hot Wolf-Rayet stars and massive (tens solar masses) OB companion generate strong stellar winds. Its percussion may lead to producing a fierce photon flux with an energetic potential of >100 MEV, when a distance separating stars is relatively short. That phenomenon was considered a possible source of gamma-radiation for a long while.

Though such radiation was detected only once, with the famous Eta Carinae when one of its stars underwebt an explosion and for some time was the most luminous star in th...