Two of these stars can be found in the intriguing binary system known as Cygnus OB2 #9. In 2011, NASA's Swift satellite, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory and several ground-based facilities took part in a campaign to monitor the system as the giant stars raced toward their closest approach. The observations are giving astronomers a more detailed picture of the stars, their orbits and the interaction of their stellar winds.
An O-type star is so luminous that the pressure of its starlight actually drives material from its surface, creating particle outflows with speeds of several million miles an hour. Put two of these humongous stars in the same system and their winds can collide during all or part of the orbit, creating both radio emission and X-rays.
In 2008, research showed that Cygnus OB2 #9 emitted radio signals that varied every 2.355 years. 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The star locations are marked by yellow dots, and decreasing gas density is indicated by the sequence of red, white and blue colors. In this simulation, a 26-solar-mass O-type star orbits the hotter and more massive (72 suns) Wolf-Rayet star WR 22. Because WR 22 possesses the stronger stellar wind, a bow shock and wake is formed by the O star as it orbits. The stellar orbits are eccentric, so the separation contracts and expands. Consequently, the conditions in the shocked gas around the O star changes; as the stars near closest approach, the gas cools so effectively that it becomes very clumpy. During closest approach, WR 22's stellar wind is so intense that the region where the winds collide is actually forced back onto the O star. Such a collapse of the wind region does not occur with Cygnus OB2 #9, which makes it a well-behaved system for exploring wind-wind interactions. 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Credit: NASA/GSFC/S. Immler", "items": [ { "id": 316482, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 471737, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/5_Cyg_OB2-9_Swift_2011_07_01.jpg", "filename": "5_Cyg_OB2-9_Swift_2011_07_01.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Swift X-ray image of Cyg OB2 #9 from July 1, 2011.Credit: NASA/GSFC/S. Immler", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } }, { "id": 316481, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 471736, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/5_Cyg_OB2-9_Swift_2011_07_01_web.jpg", "filename": "5_Cyg_OB2-9_Swift_2011_07_01_web.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Swift X-ray image of Cyg OB2 #9 from July 1, 2011.Credit: NASA/GSFC/S. Immler", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 316480, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 471735, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/5_Cyg_OB2-9_Swift_2011_07_01.tif", "filename": "5_Cyg_OB2-9_Swift_2011_07_01.tif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Swift X-ray image of Cyg OB2 #9 from July 1, 2011.Credit: NASA/GSFC/S. Immler", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 347962, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11109/#media_group_347962", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Swift X-ray image of Cyg OB2 #9 from October 7, 2011.
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Credit: ESA/Gregor Rauw, Univ. of Li", "items": [ { "id": 316489, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 471744, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/colour_exp_clean.jpg", "filename": "colour_exp_clean.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Data from the EPIC instrument aboard the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite were used to construct this image of the core of Cygnus OB2, an OB association located 4,700 light-years away. The cluster's massive O-type stars produce the strongest X-ray emission, which appear as bright sources against a background of weaker emission from hundreds of lower-mass young stars. The star nearest the center is Cygnus OB2 #8A, and the bright star directly below it is Cygnus OB2 #9. The colors correspond to different X-ray energies: blue, 0.5 to 1.0 keV; green, 1.0 to 2.0 keV; and red, 2.0 to 8.0 keV. The field of view is 40 arcminutes across. Credit: ESA/Gregor Rauw, Univ. of Li", "width": 1037, "height": 1085, "pixels": 1125145 } }, { "id": 316490, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 471745, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/colour_exp_clean_web.jpg", "filename": "colour_exp_clean_web.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Data from the EPIC instrument aboard the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite were used to construct this image of the core of Cygnus OB2, an OB association located 4,700 light-years away. The cluster's massive O-type stars produce the strongest X-ray emission, which appear as bright sources against a background of weaker emission from hundreds of lower-mass young stars. The star nearest the center is Cygnus OB2 #8A, and the bright star directly below it is Cygnus OB2 #9. The colors correspond to different X-ray energies: blue, 0.5 to 1.0 keV; green, 1.0 to 2.0 keV; and red, 2.0 to 8.0 keV. The field of view is 40 arcminutes across. Credit: ESA/Gregor Rauw, Univ. of Li", "width": 319, "height": 334, "pixels": 106546 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 347965, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11109/#media_group_347965", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Artist's rendering of a colliding wind binary.
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Reed", "width": 320, "height": 256, "pixels": 81920 } }, { "id": 316492, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 471747, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/177767main_O_Star_Binary.tif", "filename": "177767main_O_Star_Binary.tif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Artist's rendering of a colliding wind binary.Credit: NASA/C. 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Of some 3,000 stars in the group, about 100 are classified as type O. These massive suns shine so hot and bright they drive their own surface gases outward at high speed in powerful outflows called stellar winds. Two of these stars circle each other tightly, forming the binary system known as Cygnus OB2 #9. Scientists long suspected that the winds from these stars collided, but never had direct evidence of this interaction. In June 2011, scientists made a breakthrough discovery. Using NASA’s Swift satellite and other space telescopes, they observed a sharp rise in X-rays coming from the system as the stars raced toward their closest approach. It turns out the X-ray increase was tied to their colliding winds, crashing together at speeds of millions of miles per hour. Watch the video to learn more. || ", "release_date": "2014-11-06T11:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:50:21.677780-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 449479, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011600/a011680/c-1024_print.jpg", "filename": "c-1024_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Scientists observe colliding stellar winds from two colossal stars.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 10878, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10878/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Gamma rays in the Heart of Cygnus", "description": "Located in the vicinity of the second-magnitude star Gamma Cygni, the Cygnus X star-forming region was discovered as a diffuse radio source by surveys in the 1950s. Now, a study using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope finds that the tumult of star birth and death in Cygnus X has managed to corral fast-moving particles called cosmic rays.Cosmic rays are subatomic particles — mainly protons — that move through space at nearly the speed of light. In their journey across the galaxy, the particles are deflected by magnetic fields, which scramble their paths and make it impossible to backtrack the particles to their sources. Yet when cosmic rays collide with interstellar gas, they produce gamma rays — the most energetic and penetrating form of light — that travel to us straight from the source.The Cygnus X star factory is located about 4,500 light-years away and is believed to contain enough raw material to make two million stars like our sun. Within it are many young star clusters and several sprawling groups of related O- and B-type stars, called OB associations. One, called Cygnus OB2, contains 65 O stars — the most massive, luminous and hottest type — and nearly 500 B stars. These massive stars possess intense outflows that clear out cavities in the region's gas clouds. A tangled web of shockwaves associated with this process impedes the movement of cosmic rays throughout the region. Cosmic rays striking gas nuclei or photons from starlight produce the gamma rays Fermi detects.The release on NASA.gov is here. || ", "release_date": "2011-11-28T14:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2024-06-23T23:16:47.862453-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 481009, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/Cygnus-X_Still_1.jpg", "filename": "Cygnus-X_Still_1.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Tour the Cygnus X star factory. This video opens with wide optical and infrared images of the constellation Cygnus, then zooms into the Cygnus X region using radio, infrared and gamma-ray images. 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