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News Release 08-049

New Star Systems First of Their Kind

Two binary star systems could explode as yellow supergiants

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Photo of a  peanut-shaped star system with two nearly identical stars closely orbiting each other.

A newly discovered star system called "a yellow supergiant eclipsing binary" contains two very bright, massive yellow stars. They are orbiting each other so closely, they share stellar material, and the system resembles a peanut. Such systems could be progenitors of unusual yellow supernovas.

Credit: Ohio State University.


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