Astronomers discovered a binary system 300 light-years away where a red dwarf star is actively stripping material from its closely orbiting brown dwarf companion. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/31171/star-slowly-de…ight-years](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/31171/star-slowly-de…ight-years)

What can a star consuming another star teach astronomers about star formation and evolution? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the unique celestial event of larger star consuming a smaller star. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand how stars interact with planetary companions and what this could mean in the search for life beyond Earth.

For the study, the researchers examined the binary star, ZTF J0440+2325, which is located about 300 light-years from Earth and is comprised of a red dwarf star and a smaller brown dwarf. Red dwarf stars are both smaller and cooler than our Sun while brown dwarfs are planet-like objects larger than planets like Jupiter but did not reach a big enough size to begin the process of nuclear fusion to become a star.

The primary motivation behind the study was to fill a longstanding knowledge gap regarding peculiar, repeating data patterns of starlight changes that astronomers observed years ago. While astronomers have grown accustomed to seeing specific data patterns for celestial events like supernova or colliding neutron stars, whose data displays a bell curve, this new data displayed more like a triangle. The researchers pondered what could be causing this peculiar data, then studied the region where the signals were originating, discovering a red dwarf star and brown dwarf orbiting each other in only 87 minutes. Additionally, they discovered the material from the brown dwarf was being consumed by the larger red dwarf, resulting in regions of the red dwarf exhibiting higher temperatures.