Pair of White Dwarfs in 6-Minute Orbit Could Be Gravitational Wave Target

1:02 PM ETDeveloping

Science Desk

In Short: A failed rescue mission for the Swift Observatory underscores the challenges and importance of satellite servicing in orbit.

The Swift Observatory, a space telescope, is slowly falling toward Earth's atmosphere, highlighting the promise and peril of fixing satellites in orbit. The mission to rescue the satellite, which was sent by SpaceX, was a demonstration of on-orbit satellite servicing, a long-held dream of the space industry.

SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites, adding 24 broadband internet satellites to the megaconstellation, bringing the total number of satellites currently in orbit to over 11,000. The Starlink 17-50 mission, which added these satellites, took place on Tuesday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

A team of astronomers recently discovered a binary white dwarf system that could be a good target for advanced gravitational observatories. The stars in this system orbit each other so closely that material ejected from one star is directly captured by the other, instead of forming an accretion disk. The rate of orbit decay in this system is one of the fastest observed.

If the system is not too far away, its gravitational waves could be strong enough to be detected by future space-based gravitational wave observatories such as LISA. Current gravitational wave observatories are not sensitive enough to capture the gravitational waves of binary stars, making this discovery particularly significant.

The Swift Observatory's rescue mission, which was sent by SpaceX, failed, highlighting the risks and challenges of on-orbit satellite servicing. The mission to raise the satellite's orbit was a demonstration of the technology's potential, but also its limitations. As the field of satellite servicing continues to advance, the importance of such missions will only grow.

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Satellite servicing is a growing field, with government agencies and commercial companies around the world practicing high-flying maneuvers. (Tech billionaires are interested, too: Before he was appointed to the top job at NASA, administrator Jared Isaacman offered to mount a SpaceX mission to raise Hubble’s orbit.) “The technology to enable servicing is on a very good path,” says David Barnhart, an astronautical engineer at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, citing advancements in rendezvous sensors, propulsion systems and, the all-important element, robotic arms.
Those include satellites that are either not fully operational, have failed, and are preparing for deorbiting.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1097 landed on the droneship, Of Course I Still Love You, positioned in the Pacific Ocean.
They can only see the gravitational chirps of black holes just as they are merging.
What they found is that the orbits of the stars are rapidly decaying.
It's an x-ray source that has a bright pulse every 374 seconds, or just over six minutes.

Sources

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