Newly Found ‘Black Widow’ Binary Has Third Companion

The two inner stars circle in a deadly tango every 62 minutes, while the outer object goes around every 10,000 years.

Cataloged as ZTF J1406+1222 and classified as a black widow binary, the inner pulsar is sustaining its high-speed spin by stealing rotation from its mate. Normally, pulsars slow down over time, but black widows devour mass instead, and with it angular momentum from their companion stars. This allows them to look younger than they are, and to keep looking young longer…which really is the stuff of a horror novel.

The roughly one-hour orbit of the pulsar and its dying mate is the shortest orbital period so far observed for this kind of system. It also varies in optical brightness in a novel way: the pair appears to dim and brighten by a factor of thirteen. This can’t be explained just by one star blocking the light from the other, and then allowing it to be seen again. Instead, it appears that the larger-sized, lower-mass companion is being heated up by the pulsar…and locked in a death grip.

As the two orbit, the heated side of the companion comes in and out of view, and that heated side is just brighter; almost as though it’s screaming out with light to point out where it is being destroyed.

Did I mention that astronomers like to anthropomorphize things?

The Universe is a violent place, and nothing is safe from the pull of gravity and the blast of light. Black widows abound, and the stellar variety is amazing in their destruction.

This work appears in the journal Nature, and is led by Kevin Burdge.