DEEP in space are clusters with ancient stars that mysteriously defy aging leaving scientists completely baffled.
Now experts have finally uncovered the secret behind their ability to stay forever young.
For more than 70 years astronomers have been wondering how these stars – known as blue stragglers – appear bluer and brighter than their neighbours.
This is despite them being being nearly as old as the universe itself which is thought to be 13.8 billion years-old.
Their very existence contradicts theories around the ageing of stars, prompting decades of debate.
But it turns out these stars have got by all this time as literal cosmic cannibals.
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Yes, these peculiar vampire-like stars are extending their lives by mercilessly consuming their companion star.
While collisions do occur these stars actually thrive in quieter areas of the clusters, where they have enough space to feed on their partners undisturbed.
They steal hydrogen from a companion star to survive and stay deceptively youthful.
This provides them with the fuel they need to shine brightly.
“This work shows that the environment plays a relevant role in the life of stars,” said Professor Francesco R Ferraro from the University of Bologna, who led the study.
“Blue straggler stars are intimately connected to the evolution of binary systems, but their survival depends on the conditions in which they live.”
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Scientists used a huge catalogue of data from NASA and ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Their findings, published in the Nature Communications, confirm that blue stragglers are a direct by-product of binary evolution – the complex life cycle of two stars orbiting each other – and reveals how strongly a star’s surroundings can impact its life story.
“This work gives us a new way to understand how stars evolve over billions of years,” added Barbara Lanzoni, who co-authored the research.
“It shows that even star lives are shaped by their environment, much like living systems on Earth.”
