Astronomers determine the fate of a double white dwarf binary

Using the stellar evolution code named Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), Chinese astronomers studied the evolution of a recently discovered ultra-compact double white dwarf binary system, known as ATLAS J1138-5139. The results of this study, published March 20 on the pre-print server arXiv, allowed researchers to determine the fate of this system.