Astronomers have discovered a ‘phenomenally rare’ star system that could one day trigger an enormously powerful explosion that showers space with gold.
The ‘one-in-10-billion’ system is so scarce that just 10 of its kind are thought to exist in our entire galaxy.
It has all the right conditions to eventually set off a kilonova caused by the merging of two neutron stars, experts in the US say, creating a blast 1,000 times brighter than a classical nova.
The unusual star grouping – known as CPD-29 2176 – is located about 11,400 light-years from Earth and was first identified by NASA‘s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which was launched to space in 2004.
Follow-up observations with the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile allowed astronomers to confirm that the system will one day form a kilonova.
