Predicting what will happen in the universe can be hard. With the universe so vast, many things can happen which could make events unpredictable. However stars colliding can now be predicted by scientists.
There are stars that collide. This can happen in a star cluster or else in binary star systems. Knowing when that would happen is a challenge though. But a scientist has predicted that a star collision will happen in 2022.
Astronomer Larry Molnar from Calvin College has predicted that two stars will be colliding in 2022. The two stars right now cannot be seen without a telescope, but by 2022 the collision would be bright enough to be seen on the Earth. This collision will produce a brightness 10,000 times more than the stars are now.
The stars are about 1,800 light years from the Earth. Molnar has said that the stars have likely collided, though it would take a few more years before that sight would reach the Earth. He has said though the process why stars collide aren't known yet.
Star collisions have been seen before, though not too often. In 2008, a collision has been seen by Polish astronomer Romuald Tylenda. She saw the two stars as they got closer to one another, according to Vox. Tylenda though has only seen the collision by chance. The event in 2022 could be witnessed by more astronomers based on Molnar's prediction.
Molnar's search has begun after the 2008 collision. He and his team in 2013 has noticed that a binary star system is showing the same signs from 2008. He has noticed that the orbit of the two stars have started to decrease, which has then begun to draw each of them closer.
The stars are located at Cygnus. Dr. Robert Massey from the Royal Astronomical Society said that people in the UK should be able to see the event, as the constellation can be seen clearly in the summer. Officially the binary star system is named KIC 98322227, as The Telegraph reports.
The universe has many events happening daily. Most of them though aren't witnessed at once. Stars colliding can now be predicted by scientists, which can be an opportunity to see the event as it happens. An X-ray image has shown thousands of black holes in another study.
