Abstract

A star with unique chemical signatures, highly luminous and consisting of abundant elements was found in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 40 years after its prediction by Kip Thorne and Anna Żytkow, named as TŻO – Thorne Żytkow Object. The merging of red super giant star and neutron star orbiting in a binary system forms TŻO. The neutron star takes place of the core of the red super giant star and is enveloped by the burning shell, which produces heavy elements in abundance. Decades later a TŻO candidate – HV2112 was found in Small Magellanic Cloud by a team of astronomers lead by Levesque. HV2112 displayed properties that were predicted theoretically by Kip Thorne and Anna Żytkow. The discovery of TŻO revolutionized the standard model of stellar interiors. This paper lists the prediction of the TŻO and its discovery in the Milky Way galaxy.

Authors and Affiliations