ESO sheds light on type II supernova

[Chronos]

ESO recently announced its finding that a surprisingly high percentage of type O stars have companions [http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1230/] . An equally surprising high percentage have 'vampiric' companions that feed off them, which appears to answer at least one hitherto puzzling questions. From the press release -

"... The existence of this large number of vampire stars fits well with a previously unexplained phenomenon. Around a third of stars that explode as supernovae are observed to have surprisingly little hydrogen in them. However, the proportion of hydrogen-poor supernovae closely matches the proportion of vampire stars found by this study. ..."

What ESO neglected to mention is a massive, hydrogen stripped star could be a GRB candidate. This is a bit unsettling as it implies no galaxy is necessarily immune to a rogue GRB.

 

[Drakkith]

Interesting. Why is it unsettling for galaxies not to be immune to a rogue GRB?

 

[Chronos]

Long GRB's are thought most likely to be the product of Wolf-Rayet stars that have shed their hydrogen via radiation prossure. This finding appears to provide an alternative evolutionary path.