First of its kind “teardrop” star pulses with its own rhythm
HD 74423 bulges toward its companion star. (Gabriel Pérez Díaz (IAC)/)If any beings live in the solar system HD 74423, their young ones would sketch daytime scenes quite differently than human children do. Where we draw one sun, they’d draw two. And where we draw our star as a round orb, they’d likely draw one of their suns as a bulging teardrop. Gifted animators might even capture the bump’s motion as it stretches toward and recedes from its companion over a matter of hours. This star’s outlandish shape and behavior are prominent enough to be detected from Earth, 1,600 light years away, astronomers announced on Monday with a publication appearing in Nature Astronomy. Theorists have long suspected such a system was possible, but HD 74423 is the first confirmed binary containing one star whose pulses reach out toward its partner. And because it represents a new way for two stars...