In a location 5,000 light-years away from Earth, three celestial objects are entangled and on the verge of transforming into a terrifying form of “cosmic monster.”
A research team led by astrophysicist Veselin Kostov from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has identified TIC 290061484, a complex system consisting of a central part with three luminous objects contained within a narrow orbit similar to that of Mercury.
According to a publication in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal, this cluster of objects consists of three stars gravitationally linked to each other, discovered from data collected by NASA’s TESS telescope.
The extremely close distance between them—where two of the stars are almost fused together—has set a new record.
Graphic illustrating the three giant objects recently discovered orbiting each other at close distances, compared in size to the Sun (yellow) and the circular path is the orbit of Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun – (Image: NASA).
The two closely linked stars have masses of 6.85 and 6.11 times that of the Sun, with an orbital period of just 1.8 days.
The third star has a mass 7.9 times that of the Sun and orbits the central pair with a period of 24.5 days.
This easily breaks the previous record for three stars orbiting each other with an orbital period of 33 days.
But that’s not all. This trio appears to have another companion, which scientists speculate is a fourth star, orbiting them at a much greater distance.
It is estimated that this fourth star has a mass of about 6.01 times that of the Sun, orbiting the aforementioned terrifying trio with an orbital period of up to 3,200 days.
Among them, the trio of stars is “entangled” and is headed towards a certain collision. This event will cause them to explode into a supernova.
Ultimately, what remains of all three will form one of the most fearsome objects in the universe: a neutron star in approximately 20 million years.
Most neutron stars are remnants of giant stars that have collapsed once. Therefore, a neutron star formed from three different stars will be a very rare object.
It is expected to be a formidable neutron star, as each star in the aforementioned trio of entangled objects is very massive.
