What would happen if stars collided? I am a 7th grader and we are learning about stars. I am just curious about this question maybe I could explain the answer to the class when you would please send me it. Thank you very much!!!
The answer to your question depends on the sort of star you are talking about. Normal stars like our Sun are called main sequence stars by astronomers. They would only merge in places where there are a lot of stars in a small volume - and there are such places - we call them globular clusters. It seems that when stars merge in globular clusters they combine to form one star which is unexpectedly hot and bright for it's age and so we can notice them in globular clusters (and call them 'blue stragglers' since hot stars are blue). Some people work on simulating this sort of thing in computers. Below I include a link to one of them - who is an ex-Cornell graduate student! :)
Web site with movies of simulations of merging main sequence stars.
We also have answers up on our site as to what would happen if white dwarfs (cold dense 'dead stars' like what our Sun will turn into in a few billion years) collided, and what would happen if black holes collided. The links are included below. For interest I also include an link to an answer about what happens when galaxies collide. Collisions happen to a much larger fraction of galaxies than of stars!
- What are "blue stragglers" in globular clusters?
- What happens when two black holes get too close?
- What would happen if there was a collision between two white dwarfs?
- What happens when galaxies collide?
This page updated on June 27, 2015
