Joshua E. Barnes (University of Hawaii)

Close encounters between stars are very rare. Only a few of the billions of stars in a typical galaxy will ever collide. Nonetheless, encounters between stars can play an interesting role in the formation of exotic star systems. This supercomputer simulation shows what might happen if a small star crashes into a larger one.

When stars collide

The movie shows one star crashing into another star twice its mass. Stars are not solid objects, but are composed of gas that surrounds a small, dense core. When stars collide, their cores spiral into each other, while their gaseous envelopes swirl about. The friction caused by all this motion releases a tremendous amount of heat and energy. This is shown in the movie by the colors in the stars: red regions have high energy while blue regions have low energy.

Gordon Myers