Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2015

SPACE CHRONICLES n T his image shows the location of VFTS 352. This view of the Tarantula star-forming region includes visible- light images from the Wide Field Imager at the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla and infrared images from the 4.1-metre in- frared VISTA telescope at Paranal. [ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey] end its life in one of the most energetic explosions in the Universe, known as a long-duration gamma- ray burst,” says the lead scientist of the project, Hugues Sana, of the Uni- versity of Leuven in Bel- gium. The second possi- bility is explained by the lead theoretical astro- physicist in the team, Selma de Mink of Uni- versity of Amsterdam: “If the stars are mixed well enough, they both remain compact and the VFTS 352 system may avoid merg- ing. This would lead the objects down a new evo- lutionary path that is completely dif- ferent from classic stellar evolution predictions. In the case of VFTS 352, the components would likely end tational waves.” Proving the exis- tence of this second evolutionary path would be an observational bre- akthrough in the field of stellar astro- physics. But, regard- less of how VFTS 352 meets its demise, this system has already provided astrono- mers with valuable new insights into the poorly understood evolutionary process- es of massive over- contact binary star systems. T his zoom sequence starts with a broad panorama of the southern night sky and closes in on the Tarantula star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Among the many hot young stars here lies VFTS 352 — the hottest and most massive double star system to date where the two components are in contact and sharing material. The final frames show a close-up of the region of this exotic object. [ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/R. Gendler] their lives in supernova explosions, forming a close binary system of black holes. Such a remarkable object would be an intense source of gravi-