Science

The “catastrophic” 50-minute orbit between two stars is the fastest ever recorded

An illustration of a white dwarf star gobbling up matter from its sun-like companion
Written by adrina

Can a couple of stars have a toxic relationship? Keep this in mind as you learn about the newly discovered star system ZTF J1813+4251, a close-knit pair of stars with such tyrannical control over each other that they complete a full orbit around each other once every 51 minutes — the shortest orbit ever discovered for any binary star system to date, according to research published today (Oct. 5) in the journal Nature (opens in new tab).

Astronomers spotted the clingy star system about 3,000 light-years away The sun, in the constellation Hercules, while combing through a database of more than 1 billion stars. There a bright sun-like star of about the same mass as Jupiter is spending its last healthy years in the company of a white dwarf — the shriveled shell of a once-mighty star that is technically already dead and no longer burning fuel. But beyond the star grave, the white dwarf’s gravity continues to suck hydrogen from the Sun-like star’s atmosphere, causing the larger star to slowly shrink and hasten its inevitable demise.

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