‘Cataclysmic variable’ stars orbit each other every 50 minutes - Livescience.com

There, a bright sun-like star with roughly the same mass as Jupiter lives out its last healthy years in the company of a white dwarf — the shriveled husk of a once-mighty star that is, technically, already dead and done burning fuel.

But, from beyond the stellar grave, the white dwarf's gravity continues to suck hydrogen out of the sun-like star's atmosphere, slowly diminishing the larger star and accelerating its inevitable doom.

However, astronomers have discovered few binary star systems with orbital periods shorter than an hour — especially systems including large, sun-like stars, which take many hours to complete a single orbit.

According to the study authors, these stars belong to a rare class of binary star system called a "cataclysmic variable." These systems occur when a white dwarf and a sun-like star draw closer and closer together over billions of years, allowing the white dwarf to gobble up material from its companion.

Because helium is denser and heavier than hydrogen, the core of the sun-like star should be sufficiently massive to remain in a super-tight binary orbit with its white dwarf companion.

Using computer simulations, the team calculated that, in roughly 70 million years, the two stars will draw so close to each other that their orbit will drop down to just 18 minutes — far shorter than any star system ever seen.

From there, mass loss will cause the sun-like star to expand rather than contract, and the two stars will finally start to drift apart for the next several hundred million years, the team said.

At that point, the couple's orbital period will settle into a groove of roughly 30 minutes, giving the binary pair some much-needed space in their final years together before the larger star burns out?

As to whether the larger star is in a toxic relationship.