Star Duet Spawns Ripples in Spacetime ⚡ экспресс
The binary system ATLAS J1013-4516, of the AM Canum Venaticorum type, has been discovered with a period of 8.56 min and brightness G=19.51. The object was identified through periodic variability in ATLAS data among Gaia white dwarf candidates. Spectroscopy reveals a helium accretion disk, while high-speed photometry shows primary and secondary eclipses. Over a ten-year observation span (ATLAS, Gaia, ULTRACAM), the period derivative was measured: Pdot = -1.60±0.07×10⁻¹² s/s. The sign and magnitude of Pdot indicate orbital evolution driven by angular momentum loss due to gravitational radiation and mass transfer, directly probing the structural response of the donor star. Under a model dominated by gravitational waves, the component masses were constrained, and the gravitational-wave signal amplitude was estimated. It is predicted that the LISA space interferometer will accumulate a signal-to-noise ratio above 10 over 4 years, establishing this object as a promising source for studying the long-term evolution of mass-transferring binaries.
Astronomers have found a pair of stars whose dance speeds up each year. These are white dwarfs — cooled-down remnants of suns the size of Earth. One dancer steals helium from its partner, swirling it into a sparkling ribbon. Their orbit shrinks, and gravitational waves ripple into space — like circles on water.
Every 8.6 minutes, the stars stage mini-eclipses, taking turns blocking each other. Precise brightness measurements showed: once a year, the orbit shortens by a millionth of a second. Over a decade of observations, light analysis confirmed that the disk around the star is helium. The energy carried away by waves outshines dozens of suns.
In millions of years, this duet will merge into a single star — a neutron star or even a black hole. The future LISA detector will hear the final chords of their dance in just four years of observation, as Kip Thorne predicted.
🎯 If an observer were a hundred kilometers from this system, they would see darkness fall every 8.5 minutes — one star briefly hides the other.