Astronomers discover massive twin stars

Astronomers have discovered the Eta Carinae “twins” in other galaxies using the Hubble telescope in a move which will help scientists better understand the brief phase in the life of a massive star.

Read also: Black hole detected at the centre of the Milky Way

Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive stellar system within 10,000 light-years, is best known for an enormous eruption seen in the mid-19th century that hurled at least 10 times the sun’s mass into space.

“The most massive stars are always rare, but they have tremendous impact on the chemical and physical evolution of their host galaxy,” said lead scientist Rubab Khan, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. These stars produce and distribute large amounts of the chemical elements vital to life and eventually explode as supernovae.

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