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Astronomy

A dwarf-eats-dwarf world

Nature volume 442, pages 520–521 (2006)Cite this article

A white dwarf burnt-out star and a brown dwarf wannabe star have been found in mutual orbit. This fascinating system has had a turbulent past, and its future evolution could be just as spectacular.

On page 543 of this issue, Maxted et al.1 report observations of a detached astronomical binary system of small orbital separation, known as WD 0137–349. These observations are remarkable for what they imply about the pair's history, and what we can infer from them of its future: within a few billion years, the system will become a so-called cataclysmic variable, in which one star grabs mass from the other. That confirms theoretical predictions of the existence of a new sub-class of these volatile systems.

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Figure 1: Degenerate dwarfs.

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  1. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, Arizona, USA

    James Liebert

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  1. James Liebert
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Liebert, J. A dwarf-eats-dwarf world. Nature 442, 520–521 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/442520a

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