Astrophysicists Discover Record-Breaking Short-Period Binary Star System.
Astrophysicists have discovered the tightest binary system ever observed among ultracool dwarfs, consisting of a pair of very low-mass stars that complete a revolution around each other in less than one Earth day. The newly found system, LP 413-53AB, is estimated to be billions of years old, but has an orbital period that is at least three times shorter than all ultracool dwarf binaries discovered so far. The team speculates that the stars either migrated toward each other as they evolved, or they could have come together after the ejection of a third — now lost — stellar member. The discovery could help researchers learn more about potentially habitable planets beyond Earth.