{
  "id": 12225743,
  "title": "Astronomers catch a star slowly snacking on a brown dwarf, 300 light years away",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/astronomers-catch-a-star-slowly-snacking-on-a-brown-dwarf-300-light-12225743",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-05T20:40:16.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-10-astronomers-star-slowly-snacking-brown.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Astronomers have discovered a star quietly consuming a brown dwarf located 300 light-years away from Earth, marking the first observation of its kind. This system, named ZTF J0440+2325, lies within the Milky Way galaxy and challenges the traditional understanding of star-planet or star-brown dwarf interactions. While most planetary bodies orbit their stars in stable orbits, a star can pull a planet in and swallow it whole when they come too close. However, this new system represents a balance between these two extremes.\n\nKevin Burdge, an assistant professor of physics at MIT, explains that this discovery could provide insights into the long-term fate of stars like our Sun as they evolve into red giants. Instead of swallowing the companion, the star can gradually consume it over long periods, potentially lasting hundreds of thousands or even billions of years.\n\nThe system was initially identified by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a camera on a telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California that scans the sky for rapid changes in brightness, such as those caused by supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, or colliding neutron stars. Burdge noticed a peculiar light curve that didn't resemble a bell curve typical of supernovae but rather a repeating triangular pattern.\n\nInitially, Burdge thought the signal might be from a black widow binary, a system in which an extremely dense, spinning neutron star consumes a smaller companion star. However, the light curve exhibited properties inconsistent with this scenario. The team eventually realized that the system likely consisted of two low-mass objects in close proximity, with the star and brown dwarf orbiting each other every 87 minutes.\n\nThe researchers determined that the brown dwarf, around 25 times more massive than Jupiter, orbits the star every 87 minutes in a tight 87-minute orbit. This proximity allowed them to confirm that one object is indeed pulling material from the other through a process called accretion, similar to how a black hole accretes matter. However, in this case, the accretion is occurring between two relatively low-mass objects, rather than a massive black hole and a small companion.",
  "summary": "Like Earth, most planetary bodies circle their star in stable, detached orbits. These companionable systems can suddenly change when a planet comes too close to its star. In such a close encounter, a star can pull the planet in and swallow it whole.",
  "key_points": [
    "Astronomers observe star consuming brown dwarf 300 light years away",
    "ZTF J0440+2325 system challenges traditional star-planet/brown dwarf interactions",
    "Discovery provides insights into Sun's fate as red giant"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "MIT News Research",
        "title": "Astronomers catch a star slowly snacking on a brown dwarf, 300 light years away",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/astronomers-catch-a-star-slowly-snacking-on-a-brown-dwarf-300-light",
        "published": "2026-10-05T15:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Scientific American",
        "title": "Astronomers catch dwarf stars gobbling up their orbiting companions",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/astronomers-catch-dwarf-stars-gobbling-up-their-orbiting-companions",
        "published": "2026-10-05T15:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}