However, the star is spinning at least two to three times faster than stars of its kind. Yet, except for some stars in binary systems, they are difficult to measure directly. Measurements of the masses and rotation rates of blue stragglers in globular clusters are extremely important, since they allow us to trace the history of cluster formation and evolution. In this case, the mass theory has been tested and stands up well. By analyzing a blue straggler's mass, temperature, and rotation velocity, astronomers can investigate how it formed.
Astronomers now believe that blue stragglers are created by the merger of two low-mass stars.
But they have two different views of how these stars interact to create blue stragglers. One merger theory proposes that a violent collision of two unrelated stars creates a blue straggler. Another hypothesizes that a slow coalescence of a gravitationally bound pair creates the straggler star. Based on their analysis of the blue straggler in 47 Tuc, the team favors the slower, gentler merger scenario between binary stars. In double-star systems where the stars are close enough to touch each other, the more massive star can cannibalize its partner, producing a single, even more massive star.