Massive binary stars approach each other rapidly soon after birth

A team of astronomers, including UvA researchers Frank Backs and Hanneke Poorta, has discovered that massive stars that orbit a common centre of mass are born in wide orbits, but within a million years they quickly start to move towards each other. Most massive stars form pairs, but until recently it was not known how these binary stars were formed. The result of the study led by María Claudia Ramírez-Tannus of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg (Germany), was published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.