NASHVILLE, June 23 (UPI) — A U.S.-funded study finds binary stars might not be identical, and that might cause the world’s astronomers to re-examine some of their theories.
“The easiest way to explain the observed differences is if one star was fully formed about 500,000 years before its twin,” said Keivan Stassun, an associate professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University.
The discovery by Stassun and Robert Mathieu from the University of Wisconsin-Madison appears in the journal Nature.