What is the significance of this encounter to the astronomers?

The astronomers predicted fireworks from the rare stellar encounter in the year 2018. Stellar collision can be defined as when two stars which are in the same group of the stars due to the radiations emitted by the gravity or may be because of some other reason.

The importance of this encounter to the astronomers was that this can describe the huge population of millisecond pulsars and can also be used to develop the exotica of the stars.