Star Caught Orbiting Inside Another Star In Bizarre First

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Binary star systems are pairs of stars held together by gravity, orbiting a common center of mass. More than half of all stars in our galaxy are part of a binary or multiple-star system making them surprisingly common.

The stars in a binary can vary widely in mass, size, and brightness, and their interactions often shape their evolution in dramatic ways. In some cases, the gravity from one star can drag material from its companion, leading to explosive events like novae or even supernovae.

A team of astronomers from China have discovered an extremely rare pulsar in a binary system whose radiation pulses occasionally get blocked by its companion every few hours.

The team, led by Han Jinlin, a researcher from the National Astronomical Observatories of China, published their findings in the journal Science .

They emit beams of electromagnetic radiation from their magnetic poles, and as they rotate, these beams sweep across space like lighthouses beam across the oceans.

If one of those beams crosses Earth, we detect it as a regular pulse of radio waves, X-rays, or even gamma rays.

The discovery was made using the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST.) It's also known as the "China Sky Eye," is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.

Located in a natural karst depression in Guizhou Province, China, it boasts a 500-meter-wide dish constructed from over 4,400 adjustable panels, allowing it to detect faint radio signals from deep space.

FAST began formal operations in January 2020 and opened to international researchers in March 2021. Its primary scientific goals include studying pulsars, fast radio bursts , neutral hydrogen, and conducting searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.