Blue stragglers, a class of stars on open or globular clusters that stand out as they are bigger and bluer than the rest of the stars, have intrigued scientists who have for long probed their origin.
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Carrying out the first-ever comprehensive analysis of blue stragglers, Indian researchers found that
half of the blue stragglers in their sample are formed through mass transfer from a close binary companion star,
one third are likely formed through collisions of 2 stars, and
the remaining are formed through interactions of more than 2 stars.
This first-ever comprehensive analysis of blue stragglers is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The researchers compared the mass of the blue stragglers to the mass of the turnoff stars (which are the most massive ‘normal’ stars in the cluster) and predicted the formation mechanisms.
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