Supernova Fizzles Out: Rare Twin Star System Discovered With a Weirdly Circular Orbit - SciTechDaily

That was when Pavao, a senior Space Physics major, realized she was about to become a part of something big – a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Nature that describes a rare binary star system with uncommon features.

The Nature paper, published on February 1, 2023, and co-authored with Dr. Noel D. Richardson, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at Embry-Riddle, describes a twin-star system that is luminous with X-rays and high in mass.

Featuring a weirdly circular orbit – an oddity among binaries – the twin system seems to have formed when an exploding star or supernova fizzled out without the usual bang, similar to a dud firecracker.

Collaboration Counts Enter Jan J. Eldridge of the University of Auckland, a co-author on the Nature paper and a foremost expert on understanding binary star systems and their evolution.

Reference: “A high-mass X-ray binary descended from an ultra-stripped supernova” by Noel D. Richardson, Clarissa M. Pavao, Jan J. Eldridge, Herbert Pablo, André-Nicolas Chené, Peter Wysocki, Douglas R. Gies, George Younes and Jeremy Hare, 1 February 2023, Nature.

In addition to Richardson, Pavao and Eldridge, the Nature paper, “A high-mass X-ray binary descended from an ultra-stripped supernova” (Feb. 1, 2023), was co-authored by Herbert Pablo, American Association of Variable Star Observers; André-Nicolas Chené, Gemini Observatory; Peter Wysocki and Douglas R. Gies, CHARA and Georgia State University; Georges Younes, The George Washington University; and Jeremy Hare, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.