Binary + Triple Star Collision

Within star clusters, close encounters between single and multiple stars can be frequent and may lead to the production of exotic stars like X-ray sources and blue stragglers. I've created a few visualizations of interesting stellar encounters using the small-N-body code FEWBODY, and my own visualization software.

This movie shows a triple+binary star encounter that leads to a collision.

Star sizes and colors are based on the actual radii and temperatures of the given stars (with some artistic license taken). Color-coded tails are shown to help keep track of the individual stars. During a collision, I slow down the encounter, and after the collision I pause and rotate the system, both to show more detail of the interaction.

Movie by Aaron M. Geller using IDL; dynamical calculation performed using FEWBODY