A Wolf-Rayet star and a main sequence companion of spectral type O orbit in a period of 16.638 days.

[5] Sanduleak listed it as a confirmed member of the SMC, gave a spectral type of WR + OB,[6] and identified it as one of only five stars that were not nuclei of planetary nebulae, but showed OVI emission in their spectra.

[10] AB8 is located at the end of the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud, two to three thousand parsecs from the main bar.

[12] Although the Small Magellanic Cloud lies mostly within the constellation Tucana, the wing extends into Hydrus.

The spectrum of AB8 shows many strong emission lines of highly ionized carbon and oxygen that clearly identify it is a WO star although the exact subclass is unclear.

The profiles are variable due to doppler shifting produced as the stars orbit at high velocity.

This is unexpected because close pairs of hot luminous stars are expected to produce copious x-ray emission from colliding winds.

Distinct changes in the spectral line profiles are seen varying in sync with the orbital phase.

[3] The total visual brightness of AB8 can be determined fairly accurately at absolute magnitude (MV) −6.1, 23,500 times brighter than the sun.

The O star dominates the visual spectrum and produces around 70% of the brightness, leading to MV −5.9, and −4.9 for the primary.

The more massive primary leaves the main sequence after approximately 2.2 million years and overflows its roche lobe.

[4] The original chemical abundances of the two stellar components are assumed to be typical of the SMC, with metallicity 1/5th to 1/10th of solar levels.

In its current state, the WR component shows dramatically different abundances, with hydrogen and nitrogen entirely absent.

Massive stars at SMC metallicity may produce low luminosity supernovae, or even collapse directly to a black hole without a visible explosion.