Astronomers have caught a star slowly eating its smaller companion. The discovery was made by a team at MIT.

The system, called ZTF J0440+2325, is about 300 light-years from Earth. A red dwarf star is pulling gas from a brown dwarf next to it. The two orbit each other every 86.65 minutes.

Gas flows from the brown dwarf onto the bigger star. The stream hits the star and heats up a hot spot. This makes the system brighten in a regular pattern.

The study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. It is the first time scientists have seen this slow, steady feeding in such a small pair.

MIT assistant professor Kevin Burdge led the work. He said the meal could last for hundreds of thousands or even billions of years.

Brown dwarfs are failed stars. They are too small to burn hydrogen like real stars.

The find helps scientists learn how stars and their companions change over time.