Tuesday, October 13, 2026

A Red Dwarf is Taking its Time Eating a Brown Dwarf

This artist's illustration shows ZTF J0440+2325, a binary consisting of a brown dwarf (right) and a red dwarf (left). They orbit each other every 86.65 minutes, and the brown dwarf overflows onto its companion. As material streams onto the red dwarf's surface, it creates a large hot spot where the material meets the surface. The Zwicky Transient Facility detected the changing light. Image Credit: Aaron Householder (MIT)

Astronomers detected an unusual triangular light curve about 300 light years away. They were searching for Black Widow Binaries, where a dense neutron star eats its companion. But they found something different: an M dwarf slowly eating its binary companion brown dwarf.



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