Undergrad Remains of collapsed stars as touching binary planets?

[dconnell]

Would it be in any way physically possible for a binary star system to evaporate / explode, leaving behind two spheres of a solid metal such as gold (or an alloy), which were then rigid enough to drift together and maintain their shapes, rather than just collapsing into a larger sphere?

And, for bonus points, does anyone know any kind of gravity simulation software I could use to map what that combined field would look like?

Thanks.

 

[stefan r]

Kleopatra fits that description.

Not a planet. Planet sized objects always morph into spheroids or bud off moons and/or debris.

Stars won't leave behind any alloy made of scarce elements. You could get a ball of mostly iron or one made of mostly carbon etc. Events that create gold will also create the other heavy elements.

The Rouche lobe might be the model you want.

 

[dconnell]

Thanks for the reply. This is for a story I'm writing, which I want to be as physically accurate as possible, but I'm not a physicist...

A couple follow on questions if that's ok (I've googled but not quite found the answers):

Could any stellar event produce about an Earth's mass of gold?

If that mass was homogeneous/solid, ie not a rubble pile, and cold without a distinct core, would two of these masses in contact still definitely aggregate?

What if they were orbiting each other such that the centrifugal force was enough to keep them touching but separate, even if only for a couple million years or so?

None of this has to be at all likely, just not physically impossible under exactly the right conditions.

And what keeps contact binary stars which don't combine from doing so?

Cheers.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Could any stellar event produce about an Earth's mass of gold?

You mean a 'random' event, as opposed to some 'Engineered' event? Pretty definitely NO, I'm afraid.
Like throwing a shuffled pack of cards on the table and picking them up in order without looking - but much more so.