Overview
- Emission features that do not track either star’s motion are centered at the system velocity, pointing to gas that has escaped the binary to form a circumbinary ring.
- Modeling places the ring at roughly two to four times the binary separation, created because the accretor cannot absorb all of the transferred material.
- The system’s extreme brightness and rapid variability reflect unstable mass transfer that researchers describe as the system “lurching wildly.”
- Astronomers predict a nova outburst is likely within years, with a brightness increase that could make V Sagittae visible to the naked eye.
- Longer-term scenarios include a potential Type Ia supernova if mass growth continues or the stars merge, with the accretor’s identity remaining uncertain between white dwarf and Wolf–Rayet–like.