TESS Discovers Rare Cataclysmic Variable Star
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission has made an incredible discovery - a rare cataclysmic variable star, located about 400 light-years away. This type of star system, comprised of two stars orbiting close together, is extremely rare and can be used to study some of the most extreme stellar phenomena. The two stars in the newly discovered system, designated AT2018hso, are orbiting each other at a distance of about 500,000 miles every 78 minutes. The larger, more massive star is a white dwarf, while the smaller star is a red dwarf. As the two stars orbit each other, the smaller star slowly transfers matter, such as hydrogen and helium, onto the larger star, creating an accretion disk around the white dwarf. This process can cause sudden and dramatic changes in the system, leading to outbursts of X-rays and visible light. Such events can tell us much about the physics of the accretion process, and provide insight into the evolution of binary star systems.
source: Phys.org