NEWSFLASH! Sun to collide with another star!

Delta4Embassy

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Dec 12, 2013
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Sucks to be them. But a region of the cosmos (if inhabited) faces this very issue.

Astronomers image rare stellar cluster Liller 1

astronomersi.jpg


"Scientists have imaged a cluster of stars, heavily obscured by material in our galaxy, where stars are so densely packed that it is likely a rare environment where stars can collide. "It's a bit like a stellar billiards table; where the probability of collisions depends on the size of the table and on the number of billiard balls on it," said Francesco R. Ferraro of the University of Bologna (Italy), one of the team members who used the Gemini Observatory to make the observations.

The cluster of stars, known as Liller 1, is a difficult target to study due to its distance and also because it is located close to the center of the Milky Way (about 3,200 light-years away from it), where the obscuration by dust is very high. The unprecedented ultra-sharp view of the cluster reveals a vast city of stars estimated by the team to contain a total mass of at least 1.5 million suns, very similar to the most massive globular clusters in our galaxy: Omega Centauri and Terzan 5.

"Although our galaxy has upwards of 200 billion stars, there is so much vacancy between stars that there are very few places where suns actually collide," said Douglas Geisler, Principal Investigator of the original observing proposal, from University of Concepcion (Chile). "The congested overcrowded central regions of globular clusters are one of these places. Our observations confirmed that, among globular clusters, Liller 1 is one of the best environments in our galaxy for stellar collisions.""

rest at link

So...No matter how bad things get, they could get worse. :)
 
Sucks to be them. But a region of the cosmos (if inhabited) faces this very issue.

Astronomers image rare stellar cluster Liller 1

astronomersi.jpg


"Scientists have imaged a cluster of stars, heavily obscured by material in our galaxy, where stars are so densely packed that it is likely a rare environment where stars can collide. "It's a bit like a stellar billiards table; where the probability of collisions depends on the size of the table and on the number of billiard balls on it," said Francesco R. Ferraro of the University of Bologna (Italy), one of the team members who used the Gemini Observatory to make the observations.

The cluster of stars, known as Liller 1, is a difficult target to study due to its distance and also because it is located close to the center of the Milky Way (about 3,200 light-years away from it), where the obscuration by dust is very high. The unprecedented ultra-sharp view of the cluster reveals a vast city of stars estimated by the team to contain a total mass of at least 1.5 million suns, very similar to the most massive globular clusters in our galaxy: Omega Centauri and Terzan 5.

"Although our galaxy has upwards of 200 billion stars, there is so much vacancy between stars that there are very few places where suns actually collide," said Douglas Geisler, Principal Investigator of the original observing proposal, from University of Concepcion (Chile). "The congested overcrowded central regions of globular clusters are one of these places. Our observations confirmed that, among globular clusters, Liller 1 is one of the best environments in our galaxy for stellar collisions.""

rest at link

So...No matter how bad things get, they could get worse. :)
Informative, thanks.
 

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