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Blue Straggler Formation

Blue Straggler Formation
This is an artist's concept of a close binary pair of stars that are merging to form a blue-straggler-class star. Blue stragglers are so named because they seem to be lagging behind in their rate of aging compared with the population from which they formed. The merger stirs up hydrogen fuel and causes the resulting more massive star to undergo nuclear fusion at a faster rate, causing it to burn hotter and bluer. Probing the star-filled, ancient hub of our Milky Way, the Hubble Space Telescope has found blue stragglers for the first time within our galaxy's bulge.
  • Release Date
    May 25, 2011
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble Finds Rare Blue Straggler Stars in the Milky Way’s Hub
  • Credit
    Artwork: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI); Science: NASA, ESA, W. Clark (Indiana University and UCLA), and K. Sahu (STScI)

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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov