Stellar collision

Simulated collision of two neutron stars

A stellar collision is the coming together of two stars^[1] caused by stellar dynamics within a star cluster, or by the orbital decay of a binary star due to stellar mass loss or gravitational radiation, or by other mechanisms not yet well understood.

Any stars in the universe can collide, whether they are "alive", meaning fusion is still active in the star, or "dead", with fusion no longer taking place. White dwarf stars, neutron stars, black holes, main sequence stars, giant stars, and supergiants are very different in type, mass, temperature, and radius, and accordingly produce different types of collisions and remnants.^[2]

^ Fred Lawrence Whipple (March 1939), "Supernovae and stellar collisions", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 25 (3): 118–25, Bibcode:1939PNAS...25..118W, doi:10.1073/pnas.25.3.118, PMC 1077725, PMID 16577876
^ Cite error: The named reference CHAN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] Fred Lawrence Whipple (March 1939), "Supernovae and stellar collisions", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 25 (3): 118–25, Bibcode:1939PNAS...25..118W, doi:10.1073/pnas.25.3.118, PMC 1077725, PMID 16577876

[CHAN-2] Cite error: The named reference CHAN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1]

[2]