The universe has many mysteries that astronomers are still trying to figure out. As new discoveries are made, new questions are being raised as well. Many stars are still a mystery, and some stars do have peculiar behavior, such as those that have been found to have conditions that should have destroyed them yet are instead building them up.
Dr. Jimmy Irwin is an astronomer from the University of Alabama an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy. He is joined by a team of three undergraduate student researchers. Together they have discovered that there has been a massive flare of energy from X-ray binary stars in two galaxies, according to Science Daily.
Such flares of energy aren't exactly new, as stars do go through that stage before exploding in a spectacular supernova. However, in this case the stars are peculiar since instead of destroying them, they seem to be rebuilding them up. Two particular stars have been studied exhibiting this behavior.
The two stars would be on the verge of exploding as they emit large amounts of energy. But then the situation would calm down within an hour, only to repeat the process a few days later. Normally such situations would destroy the star, but the stars remain as they are after the event.
"Whatever these objects are, we don't know just yet," admitted Irwin. He added that some mechanism that has yet to be explained has been causing the stars to act that way. He didn't rule out the possibility of a companion star or even a black hole which may be causing the situation.
"We don't have enough information yet, but it's not something we've seen in our galaxy," Irwin added. The flares have occurred in a globular cluster, as News Wise reports. Galaxies have globular clusters. The Milky Way, for instance, has 150 of them.
As of now no explanation has yet been given as to why the stars act that way. The likelihood that there is a companion to these stars, and possibly a black hole causing it, is possible. Irwin said that they're going to find ways to observe the outbursts more frequently, as it has to be time right.
There is speculation also that dense molecular gas disks have created supermassive black holes.
