Chandra Release - May 30, 2005

Visual Description: RX J0806.3+1527

 An illustration of a binary star system, RX J0806.3+1527 (J0806), is displayed on the right with spectral information on the left. The drawing shows two bright stars in the galaxy, which are orbiting each other and with lines of motion around them.  The dominant colors in the image are dark purple and white. Chandra data on the left graph, or spectrum, on J0806 show that its X-rays vary with a period of 321.5 seconds, or slightly more than five minutes. This implies that the X-ray source is a binary star system where two white dwarf stars are orbiting each other only 50,000 miles apart, making it one of the smallest known binary orbits in the Galaxy.  Observations indicate that the orbital period of this system is decreasing by 1.2 milliseconds every year, which means that the stars are moving closer at a rate of 2 feet per year.