The two stars are very young, no older than two million years, and it is very likely that they formed in the same positions we see today.
The two stars are so close that their atmospheres have probably already begun to touch and interact. Although there is some degree of uncertainty about what will happen in the future, it is believed that the two stars will eventually merge into a single supergiant star with a mass of 60 solar masses, while the remaining mass will be released in the form of energy.
If this hypothesis were confirmed it would be an important step forward for the understanding of the formation of stars with mass tens of times that of the Sun.
Credit: ESO, L. Calçada.
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