If two Suns collided what would be the reaction, APART from devastation?

Question

Could they even merge together...then what?

What do you know (show links) and/or think (opinion)?

T'is an open question :)
The Realist Spiritualist

Well I knew this was going to be a hard choice so many great insights and facts hmmm...Wish I could've picked more than one answer...But...

Answer 1

If the two stars are of the same type (aka, two yellow sun-like stars, two red giants, two neutron stars, etc.) then they will merge. Otherwise, one or both gets blown to bits. Actually, if one is far larger than the other star, then they probably won't collide, but the smaller star will be caught up orbiting the larger one.

Answer 2

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Actually the universe did you one better. Two Galaxies did a head on collision and the astronomers are using the results to determine the nature of dark mater.
Seems the dark mater passed through the collision zone faster than the visible mater which got held back by stronger reactions to gravity.
Google "dark mater" for more info
Specific to your question. Two stars in direct collision would be interesting.
Let us assume two of our suns as the size and nature of the stars
First light would be slightly bent toward the other star.
Since the stars are in direct line of contact there would be no angular momentum problem.
The material of the stars are quite different as you go deeper and deeper into the star.
The Hydrogen turning into Helium sun having been debunked.
The material of a star is very layered.
At the outside what we see is miles and miles deep of loose electrons and protons. The electrons have been displaced from their atoms deeper in the sun by a pressure, volume, density contest. Densest Atom wins and gets deeper in the star. Turns out most of the insides of stars are ions of material heavier and much heavier than uranium, we do not even have these listed on our periodic table yet.
Thus when two Suns collide what happens?
If they are moving fast enough to crack into the inner material and disrupt the density pressure balance, that the interior ions have achieved, then there will be a huge inrush of electrons from the surface as the over sized highly positive ions are exposed. The Ions will gain electrons making each a neutral atom of a much larger volume. Which means a decompression of gigantic scale.
The ions not on the surface would notice the lessening of the compressive forces and the redirection of the gravitational center of mass. After millions of years of slowly decompressing and fissioning. They would decompress and all fission into smaller atoms very quickly. Yes it would be quite an explosion. Nova in scale

Answer 3

Like most collisions the result depends on relative speeds and angle of attack.
Most probably both suns would try to 'gravity sling' around their common Centre of Gravity.
This would cause them both to be pulled badly out of shape so the resultant chaos would eventually coalesce in to one larger star with a different movement vector. If the original suns were big enough the resultant star may well go nova.

Answer 4

yes they could merge, they would tend to circle each other a bit first and share material until eventually they merged. I don't think there would necessarily be any explosion on a big scale, it should jsut make a bigger star.

i'm no expert, but have read about stars doing something similar.

Answer 5

One Sun burns the other. Totally cool.

Answer 6

they could show us something really cool explosion and the areas near the collided suns would be hotter as in 3x hotter than its normal