Astronomers warn binary star system will explode in 60 years; how will it affect Earth?

Scientists revealed that a nearby binary star system is expected to explode and cause a bright flash in Milky Way in about 60 years.

By Carlo Inigo Monzon
January 13, 2020 17:13 +08

NASAs Hubble space telescope captures supernovas light echo

According to a team of scientists, a nearby double star system is in danger of exploding before the century ends. They said the upcoming explosion would be bright enough to be spotted from Earth.

The double or binary star system that the scientists are currently monitoring is called V Sagittae. This cosmic structure lies within the Sagitta constellation and is about 5,100 light-years from Earth.

[BHB2007] 11 — The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured this unprecedented image of two circumstellar disks, in which baby stars are growing, feeding with material from their surrounding birth disk. The complex network of dust structures distributed in spiral shapes remind of the loops of a pretzel. These observations shed new light on the earliest phases of the lives of stars and help astronomers determine the conditions in which binary stars are born. ALMA ESO/NAOJ/NRAO, Alves et al.

V Sagittae's Worsening State

V Sagittae is composed of a main sequence star of about 3.3 solar masses, which means it over three times more massive than the Sun. The smaller star within the system is a white dwarf that's about 0.9 solar masses. Recently, a team of scientists from the Louisiana State University shared their findings about the current state of the star system. According to the scientists, they have been studying the data collected on the star system dating back to 1890.

As they were going through the data, the scientists learned that the brightness of the main sequence star of V Sagittae has been increasing by a factor of 10. In addition, its companion white dwarf star has been spinning more violently, which causes it to become more luminous.

Artist's concept illustrating Supernova 1987A as the powerful blast wave passes through its outer ring and destroys most of its dust, before the dust re-forms or grows rapidly. NASA/SOFIA/Symbolic Pictures/The Casadonte Group

V Sagittae's Explosion

According to the scientists, the behavior displayed by the binary star system suggests that its main star is losing its mass because its fuel is being absorbed by the spinning dwarf star. This means that the star system is in danger of exploding and causing a nova event. Once this happens, V Sagittae would briefly become the most luminous cosmic object in Milky Way. The explosion would most likely not affect the Earth but it would be bright enough to be observed from the planet. According to the scientists, the stellar explosion could happen sometime in 2083.

"Over the next few decades, the star will brighten rapidly," Bradley Schafer of the Louisiana State University's Department of Physics and Astronomy said in a statement. "Around the year 2083, its accretion rate will rise catastrophically, spilling mass at incredibly high rates onto the white dwarf, with this material blazing away."