One of the stars in it changes brightness once in 62 minutes. This is probably due to the fact that one of its sides is much brighter than the opposite. And the reason for this is the radiation of the pulsar tearing it. It probably represents the pulsar “black widow”, which is slowly absorbing its low-mass companion, and the third star orbiting this duo with a period of 10 thousand Earth years.
“At the moment, about two dozen “black widows” are known in the Milky Way. However, our candidate, who received the designation ZTF J1406+1222, is unique in that it was identified in the optical range by the periodic increase in brightness of the side of the dying star facing the pulsar, and not by the gamma or X-ray radiation of the pulsar itself,” the authors of the study say.
How the system was formed remains a mystery. However, based on the collected data, astronomers suggest that, as in the case of known analogues, ZTF J1406+1222 originated in a globular cluster – a dense constellation of old stars – which for a long time slowly drifted to the center of the Milky Way, where the gravity of the central supermassive black hole was torn apart, leaving behind many disparate systems.
