Extreme 8.5-minute orbit reveals white dwarf being torn apart by its binary companion

A team of U.S. astronomers has observed a binary pair of white dwarfs where one star is actively devouring material from the other. Led by Emma Chickles at MIT, the researchers revealed one of the clearest views yet of how ultracompact white dwarf binaries exchange mass at extreme orbital periods—offering an enticing potential target for future generations of gravitational wave detectors. The research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.