Rare 'black widow' binary star with shortest orbit ever identified

Astronomers know of about two dozen black widow binaries in the Milky Way.

Scientists have discovered a rare "triple black widow" system – a pair of stars that rapidly circle each other before one is consumed by the other – located some 3,000 light-years away.

The star system named "ZTF J1406+1222" has the shortest known orbit of any black widow binary i.e. 62 minutes, according to researchers.

What makes this system unique is that it contains a third star that circles the central pair every 10,000 years, according to the finding published in the journal Nature on May 4.

A team led by scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S. found the stellar oddity, which appears to be a new black widow binary – a rapidly spinning neutron star or pulsar that is circling and slowly consuming a smaller companion star.

The system derives its name from the "black widow" spiders, in which the female eats the male after mating.

Astronomers know of about two dozen black widow binaries in the Milky Way.

The research, which also involves astronomers from the University of Sheffield in the U.K., suggests that "ZTF J1406+1222" has the shortest orbital period yet identified, with the pulsar and companion star circling each other every 62 minutes.