New data from X-ray reveals unique star system in Magellanic Bridge: IUCAA

“The system contains a white dwarf — the type of object our Sun will eventually become — that is being fed with gas by a much larger giant star, causing it to glow brightly in X-rays,” Chandreyee Maitra, associate professor at IUCAA- Pune said. “The discovery offers a new way to understand how encounters between galaxies affect the lives and evolution of their stars, she added.

The research was led by Dr Tathagata Saha and professor Chandreyee Maitra at IUCAA, highlighting the institute’s important role in eROSITA science and in uncovering energetic objects in our neighbouring galaxies. Maitra also chairs the Compact Objects Working Group of the eROSITA-DE Consortium, placing IUCAA at the forefront of international efforts to explore some of the most energetic and extreme objects in the Universe.

They are also part of the German eROSITA Consortium which has announced the second public data release containing nearly two million X-ray sources. Mitra is also the Head of the Max Planck partner group of IUCAA-Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and Chair of the Compact Objects Working Group of the eROSITA-DE consortium.

Published in the Royal Astronomical Society journal, according to the researchers, the discovery illustrates the scientific reach of the eROSITA all-sky survey: the same homogeneous dataset that enables population studies of millions of X-ray sources can also uncover rare individual systems in previously underexplored environments. “Finding and studying these systems in the Magellanic Bridge can help us understand how close encounters between galaxies influence the way binary stars form, evolve and survive. . This discovery is part of a broader effort to build the first X-ray census of compact objects across the Magellanic System,” researchers said. By moving from individual discoveries to a larger population, researchers will be able to compare stellar evolution in the Bridge with that in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and gain a clearer picture of how interactions between neighbouring galaxies shape their stars over time.