The smaller, brighter, hotter star (left) is shedding mass to its greater companion (proper)
UCL / J. daSilva
A distant star is being eaten by its companion, however it’s on the brink of take its revenge. The pair make up essentially the most huge contact binary – two stars which are so shut collectively they’re technically touching – ever discovered.
The pair of stars is named SSN 7, and it’s positioned in a star-forming area known as NGC 346 within the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy about 200,000 gentle years away. Matthew Rickard at University …