Artist's impression of VFTS 352, a binary star system 160,000 light-years away. The stars are close enough that some of their material is being shared between them. (credit: ESO/L. Calçada)
New observations from the Very Large Array have turned up a system with two stars that are so close they’re actually touching. Named VFTS 352, this isn’t the first time we've observed a system of this type, known as an overcontact binary. But this is the most massive one discovered to date and the hottest one yet discovered, with both stars having temperatures over 40,000ºC.
Overcontact binaries are extremely rare and thus are observed infrequently. That’s because they exist for only a very short period in the lifespan of a system.
VFTS 352’s stars are continuing to orbit one another despite their close proximity of 12 million kilometers. They complete an orbit of their common center of mass in just over a day. By contrast, Mercury’s tight orbit of the Sun, though much faster than Earth’s, still takes a full 88 days more or less. They’re so close that they’re actually sharing a bridge of gas that connects them (as illustrated in this animation).
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