Massive stars in metal-poor environments often have close partners Published on: 2 September 2025 Massive stars in metal-poor galaxies often have close partners, just like the massive stars in our metal-rich Milky Way. This recent discovery was made by an international team of seventy astronomers, and includes 缅北禁地. They used the European Very Large Telescope in Chile to monitor the velocity of massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The researchers publish their findings in Nature Astronomy.For the past twenty years, astronomers have known that many massive stars in the metal-rich Milky Way have a partner. In recent years, it has become clear that the interaction between these partners is important for the evolution of massive stars. However, until now, astronomers were unsure if massive stars in metal-poor galaxies could also be part of a binary system. Now, it turns out that this is indeed the case. Massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Image: ESO/Sana et al. See bottom of page for caption details. Time machine "We used the Small Magellanic Cloud as a time machine," explains from KU Leuven, Belgium. "The Small Magellanic Cloud has a metallicity environment representative of that of distant galaxies when the Universe was only a few billion years old."Studying massive stars outside of the Milky Way is difficult because the stars are far away and we receive little light from them. The researchers used the on the of the European Southern Observatory in Chile. It is one of the largest telescopes on Earth. FLAMES has 132 optical fibers, each of which can be directed at a different star, thus allowing many stars to be observed simultaneously. Accelerate and decelerate Over a period of 3 months, the researchers observed the acceleration and deceleration of 139 massive at 9 different times. These stars have masses between 15 and 60 times that of our Sun. They are hot, shine brightly, and end their lives in supernova explosions, which causes the star's core to collapse into a black hole. The results show that over 70% of the observed stars accelerate and decelerate, which is a clear sign for having a nearby partner."The fact that massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud have a partner suggests that the first stars in the universe, which we suspect were also massive, had partners too," says co-author of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. "Perhaps some of those systems end up as two black holes orbiting each other. It’s an exciting result."The researchers have planned to observe the same stars 16 more times in the near future. They aim to reconstruct the precise orbits of the binary stars, determine the masses of their components, and study the nature and properties of the companion star."Using our measurements, cosmologists and astrophysicists studying the young, metal-poor universe will then be able to rely on our knowledge of massive binary stars with greater confidence," says co-author of Tel Aviv University (Israel). Co-author from 缅北禁地 concludes "Massive stars in binaries are particularly interesting because they can have drastically different end products to stars born without a partner. These results help constrain how binary stars evolve from birth to death, which is part of the ongoing at 缅北禁地." Funding: The research received funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in the form of a Frontier Research grant under the UK government’s ERC Horizon Europe funding guarantee (SYMPHONY; PI Bowman; grant number: EP/Y031059/1), and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (PI Bowman; grant number: URF\R1\231631). Reference Sana, H., Shenar, T., Bodensteiner, J. et al. A high fraction of close massive binary stars at low metallicity. Nat Astron (2025). Press release adapted with thanks from the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Image: Massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Of the stars studied, seventy percent (the red diamonds) appear to accelerate and decelerate. This indicates the presence of a partner. (c) ESO/Sana et al. Share: Latest News New partnership to boost careers in low carbon energy 缅北禁地 and Durham universities are working together on a new regional project to strengthen the future workforce for North East England鈥檚 growing low carbon and offshore wind industries. published on: 28 May 2026 Healthy lifestyle shown to lower risk of death after cancer diagnosis New evidence shows that sticking to five lifestyle recommendations improves survival after a later cancer diagnosis. published on: 28 May 2026 World-leading climate expert recognised with Royal Society Fellowship Professor Hayley Fowler has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of her pioneering work on climate change impacts. published on: 27 May 2026 Facts and figures
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