Astronomers using the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile have uncovered the first example of a phenomenally rare type of binary star system, one that has all the right conditions to eventually trigger a kilonova.
- A kilonova is the ultra-powerful, gold-producing explosion created by colliding neutron stars.
- This unusual system, known as CPD-29 2176, is located about 11,400 light-years from Earth.
- It was first identified by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
- Later observations with the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope allowed astronomers to deduce the orbital characteristics and types of stars that make up this system — a neutron star created by an ultra-stripped supernova and a closely orbiting massive star that is in the process of becoming an ultra-stripped supernova itself.
Kilonovas are huge flashes of electromagnetic radiation released during the merger of either two neutron stars — the collapsed cores of massive stars that ran out of fuel — or a neutron star and a black hole.
