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Science 8 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5805, p. 1512
DOI: 10.1126/science.314.5805.1512a
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This Week in Science

Figure 1 Cataclysmic variables are binary systems in which a compact white dwarf sucks material from its companion star, which causes their light emission to flicker. Theoretical work has suggested that the donor stars in most fast-spinning cataclysmic variable systems should have lost enough hydrogen to become brown dwarfs, but none have been seen. By accurately timing the eclipses in the short-period cataclysmic variable system SDSS 103533.03+055158.4, Littlefair et al. (p. 1578; see the Perspective by Maxted) show that its donor is a 0.05 solar mass brown dwarf, which was likely cannibalized from a normal main-sequence star. The star's mass is slightly greater than its orbital period would suggest, which implies that brown dwarf radii may be underestimated by current evolutionary models.

CREDIT: STUART LITTLEFAIR, CHRIS WATSON/SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)