What is a Binary Star System?
A binary star system is a star system with two stars orbiting around each other. Multiple star systems, such as trinaries, etc., are also usually categorized using the same term. Star systems with as many as seven mutually orbiting bodies have been classified. It is thought that binary star systems are quite common in the universe, and may in fact be in the majority. This is because the dust cloud that collapses to form stars often has more than one center of gravity. If these are small clumps, they form planets or brown dwarfs, if large they form stars. Binary stars are said to be companion stars of one another. Binary star systems are very important in astronomy, because mapping their mutual orbits allows one to estimate their mass. Estimating mass is useful for contrasting it against the temperature and apparent luminosity, helping us determine absolute luminosity and distance. Eclipsing binaries, where stars in a binary system eclipse each other periodically from our point of view,
A binary star system consists of two stars which orbit around a common point, called the center of mass following Kepler s 3rd law we will compute this in the lab on Thursday. The component stars in multiple systems orbit each other, and move around their center of mass, because of their mutual gravitational interaction, Five to ten percent of the stars visible to us are visual binary stars. Careful spectroscopic studies of nearby solar-type stars show that about two thirds of them have stellar companions. It is estimated that roughly half of all stars in the sky are indeed members of binaries. Binary and multiple stars are common in the universe. Stellar formation results in multiple systems at least as often as in single stars like our Sun, as observations suggest. Types of Binaries • Visual • Spectroscopic • Eclipsing • X-Ray Visual Binaries: Visual binaries are systems in which the individual stars can be seen through a telescope. Spectroscopic Binaries: Are systems in which the st
