Binary Stars HD 5980 in X-Rays

the european space agency's xxm-newton x-ray observatory has observed the collision of the winds from two binary stars in the smc radiating energy at a rate about a million times that of our sun. each star is emitting the equivalent of one earth mass of material in its wind every month; this material is then accelerated away from the star by the radiation it is simultaneously emitting. the result? the collision zone is emitting - in x-rays alone - 10 times the amount of energy emitted by our sun. the optical image is above, and the x-ray image below (click for animation). (image credits: esa)