3. Jun, 2022

Astronomers at MIT detect a rare 'black widow binary' with the shortest orbital period yet

Some 3,000 light years away from earth, MIT astronomers detected a stellar oddity which appears to be a new 'black widow binary' meaning- a rapidly spinning neutron star, or otherwise known as a pulsar, that orbits a relatively smaller star and actively consumes it, hence the name. The newly identified ZTF J1406+1222, has the shortest orbital period yet identified, with the neutron star and smaller star making a full orbit of each over every 62 minutes. This particular 'black widow binary' is peculiar because there have been reports that it also host a third star that orbits around the 2 inner stars ever 10,000 or so years. ZTF J1406+1222 was spotted when observations where taken by Gaia, a space telescope that is operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It is only a candidate though, since the astronomers working on it didn't directly spot any gamma or x-ray emissions although, they do hope that with further observations it will be confirmed.