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Just like corporations, stars, too, can engage in mergers and acquisitions: a new study has identified a pair of white dwarf stars heading toward a merger.
就像企業(yè)一樣，星星也能進(jìn)行"合并和收購"：經(jīng)研究確定一對白矮星正走向合并。
White dwarfs are the hot, superdense remnants of spent stars. In a binary system called J0651, two white dwarfs circle each other very rapidly. The binary pairing completes an orbit in less than 13 minutes.
白矮星是一種高熱度、高密度的晚期恒星。在這個編號 J0651 的雙星系統(tǒng)內(nèi)，有兩顆恒星相互圍繞飛快轉(zhuǎn)動。這對雙子星不到13分鐘就能繞軌道轉(zhuǎn)一周。
And that already rapid orbital dance is speeding up as the two white dwarfs spiral in on each other. Each year their orbital period shrinks by 0.3 milliseconds. That's actually a pretty dramatic change on astronomical timescales.
雖然運(yùn)行速度非常之快，但兩顆白矮星仍在加速，像螺旋一樣彼此盤旋著。每年它們的軌道周期會縮短0.3毫秒。在天文時間表上這實(shí)際上是相當(dāng)戲劇性的變化。
In about a million years, the white dwarfs will get so close that the larger one will start to cannibalize its smaller companion. Before long, the two stars will likely become one. The study appears in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
大約100萬年后，這對白矮星的距離會變得十分之近，因此較大的白矮星會開始蠶食較小的白矮星。再過不久這兩顆星就很有可能變成一顆星。這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《天體物理雜志通訊》上。
The tightly wound white dwarf binary should also be radiating gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of space and time. But today's gravitational wave detectors are not sensitive enough to detect them. That's okay—astronomers have another million years, before things get really interesting, to build an instrument that's up to the task.
緊緊纏繞的白矮雙子星同時也會發(fā)出引力波——那是在空間和時間結(jié)構(gòu)上擴(kuò)散開的波紋。但如今的重力探測器還不夠敏感，不能探測到引力波。不過沒關(guān)系，在事態(tài)開始引人關(guān)注前，科學(xué)家還有一百萬年的時間來研發(fā)設(shè)備，完成此項(xiàng)任務(wù)。
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