ASTRONOMERS have pinpointed two huge stars orbiting close to each other in space which could merge to create a "super" sun, 100 times bigger than our own.

The massive "binary" star system, located in a galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, has been captured by Nasa scientists using satellite and ground-based telescopes.

It is one of the most "extreme" systems of its type known to astronomers and is also relatively young, at less than three million years old.

The stars, around 165,000 light years from Earth and labelled LH54-425 by astronomers, each contain about 62 and 37 times the mass of our sun.

As they age and swell in size, scientists believe they will begin to transfer huge amounts of mass to each other. Eventually, they are likely to merge, producing a single huge star to rival one of the largest found in the Milky Way - Eta Carinae, first catalogued by Edmond Halley in 1677.

"The merger of two massive stars to make a single super star of over 80 suns could lead to an object like Eta Carinae, which might have looked like LH54-425 one million years ago," said George Sonneborn, of Nasa.

"Finding stars this massive so early in their life is very rare."