A Distant Star is Slowly Snacking on a Brown Dwarf
This absorption could take billions of years The post A Distant Star is Slowly Snacking on a Brown Dwarf appeared first on Nautilus .
A red dwarf star is slowly consuming a brown dwarf, marking a unique phase between stable orbit and complete destruction. This phenomenon, never observed before, was recently discovered by astronomers. The star and brown dwarf, named ZTF J0440+2325, are part of the Milky Way, with the star being about 85 times the mass of Jupiter and the brown dwarf roughly 25 times that.
They orbit each other in a mere 87 minutes. The interaction was first detected as an unusual triangular light signal. It takes billions of years for the brown dwarf to vanish completely, consuming between 40 million and 85 times the mass of Jupiter per second. This slow feeding process is akin to what the Earth will experience when the sun turns into a red giant.
The discovery opens up the possibility of more such systems being identified, providing ample time to study them due to their prolonged existence.
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