"Stellar Merger Unveils Magnetic Monster: Solving Nebula Mysteries"

A bizarre binary star system, HD 148937, located 3,800 light-years away, contains two massive stars, one of which is the brightest and hottest known to have a magnetic field. Despite the conventional understanding that massive stars should not have magnetic fields, about 7% of them do. Recent observations suggest that the magnetic field in HD 148937's star was acquired through a violent merger with another star, leading to the creation of a bipolar nebula and shedding light on the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars.