PR2015-43_Birth-of-a-Blue-Straggler_Gosnell.jpg Birth of a Blue Straggler
Left: A normal star in a binary system gravitationally pulls in matter from an aging companion star that has swelled to a bloated red giant that has expanded to a few hundred times of its original size. Right: After a couple hundred million years the red giant star has burned out and collapsed to the white dwarf that shines intensely in ultraviolet wavelengths. The companion star has bulked up on the hydrogen siphoned off of the red giant star to become much hotter, brighter and bluer than it was previously. Credit: NASA/ESA, A. Feild (STScI)
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