Astronomers discover formation of Blue Straggler Star
Astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), along with researchers from India, Italy, France, and the U.S., have discovered the formation process of a Blue Straggler Star (BSS). Blue Straggler Stars are a peculiar class of stars found in star clusters that appear hotter, brighter, and more massive than their peers.
The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, provides direct evidence of how such stars are created. The astronomers studied a binary star system, TIC 327546480, within the old open star cluster Collinder 261, located about 9,500 light-years away. Through high-precision light curves from NASA’s TESS space mission and radial velocity measurements using the Very Large Telescope in Chile, the team observed the BSS actively gaining material from its companion star, providing a rare glimpse of a BSS caught in the act of formation.
The binary system is semidetached, with one star expanding and overflowing its gravitational boundary, causing the less massive companion star to transfer matter to the BSS. This ongoing mass transfer confirms that the rejuvenation process is still taking place, making the system one of the clearest examples of a forming blue straggler identified so far.
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