Astronomers Discover Population of Stripped Stars, Shedding Light on Supernovae Origins

The discovery in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds confirms the existence of these stripped stars and has implications for our understanding of supernovae, gravitational waves, and the light from distant galaxies.

• Astronomers have discovered a population of massive stars that have been stripped of their hydrogen envelopes by their companions in binary systems, shedding light on the origins of hydrogen-poor core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers.
• For over a decade, scientists have theorized that approximately one in three massive stars are stripped of their hydrogen envelope in binary systems, but until now, only one possible candidate had been identified.
• These stripped stars have been difficult to find because the light they emit is outside the visible light spectrum and can be obstructed by dust in the universe or outshone by their companion stars.
• The researchers used data from the Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope to study millions of stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of the closest galaxies to Earth, and identified 25 stars that fit the profile of stripped stars.
• The discovery confirms the existence of these stripped stars and has implications for our understanding of supernovae, gravitational waves, and the light from distant galaxies.

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