Astronomers have made an exciting new discovery about the orbit of a mysterious celestial object called a “Persistent Supersoft X-ray Source” (PSSXS). This type of object is incredibly rare, and is thought to be a white dwarf star that is actively burning material from a companion star.

The astronomers used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the PSSXS, which is located in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. The data from Chandra revealed that the PSSXS has an incredibly short orbital period of only around 1.4 hours. This is the shortest orbital period ever seen for a PSSXS, and it suggests that the white dwarf star is in a very close orbit with its companion star.

This discovery provides valuable insight into the behavior of these rare objects and could potentially help us understand how white dwarf stars interact with their companion stars.

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source: Phys.org