The Frankenstein Stars of the Night Sky: Why Some of the Brightest Ones Are Not Like We Picture Them

Associate Professor Ken Gayley

Everyone knows stars are giant spheres of hot gas, like the one we see rise in the sky every morning. They are born via gravitational contraction, and live out their long lives in isolation and peace, until they eventually die as small burnt-out husks, or explode in brilliant bursts that spread essential elements all over the galaxy. But are all the stars we can see like that? Most types of supernova actually involve stellar binarity, and many of the stars we see in the sky are fundamentally reshaped by these binary interactions, in ways that are only now becoming known. We may have to rethink a lot about how we picture stars, as well as how, like Frankenstein monsters, they contribute their parts to each other after they die.

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