"Unveiling the Smallest Stars in Exotic Binary Systems"

Astronomers have discovered the smallest known star, part of a binary system called J0526, located 2,760 light years from Earth. The star, named J0526B, is a hot subdwarf approximately seven times the size of Earth with a surface temperature of 2,226°C, and it orbits a larger unseen white dwarf, J0526A, every 20 minutes. This finding challenges previous theories about the size and nature of stars, suggesting that they can be smaller than previously thought and leading to speculation about the existence of even smaller stars with unknown properties.