Originally Posted by ArgoNavis

That was the title of an article in the June 2008 Astronomy magazine.

But what really got me wondering is the statement on page 36, under the "short duration gamma ray bursts" panel was the statements: 1. Two neutron stars circle each other in a close gravitational dance. 2. eventually, the stars gravity pulls them closer, and they spiral toward each other. 3. Their dance ends in an explosive collision.

Now, how would 2 objects in a stable orbit around each other "spiral towards each other"?

I can understand accretion disks - gas orbiting a body (such as a black hole) would lose orbital energy via friction and other processes so that it can "fall in" to the black hole.

But I cannot understand how 2 bodies in stable orbits would lose orbital energy - and even if they did, their new orbits would be stable.