Binary star Definition and 69 Threads

It’s my understanding that a nova happens when you have a close binary star, and one component is a white dwarf. The white dwarf sucks hydrogen from its companion, the hydrogen piles up on the surface of the dwarf until it’s hot and dense enough to undergo nuclear fusion. Ka-boom. Right? Why is...

I'm looking for a database of binary stars within 10 PC of Earth, including information such as eccentricity of orbits, their distance from one another, etc. I'm hoping to find a list with this information, or just a collection of pages with this information. I've tried Simbad but I can't find...

From what I gather, there are S-type, P-type & T-type systems, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the orbital possibilities. Would it be theoretically possible to have a planet in a binary star system where there is a daily "pre-sunrise" and a "pre (or post) sunset" due to the...

Homework Statement: A binary star system consists of M1 and M2 separated by a distance D. M1 and M2 are revolving with an angular velocity w in circular orbits about their common center of mass. Mass is continuously being transferred from one star to the other. This transfer of mass causes...

https://pmt.physicsandmathstutor.com/download/Physics/A-level/Past-Papers/AQA-Old/Unit-5/June%202015%20MS%20-%20Unit%205-2A%20AQA%20Physics%20A-level.pdf mark scheme question 2 very simple question why is the change in wavlength not 656.05 - 656.52? instead. The difference being in the mark...

Hi all, I've been tasked with computing binary star orbits based on their initial parameters, positions and velocities. In this problem everything must be expressed in terms of the masses, but I am struggling to define positions and velocities in terms of mass. It is assumed that the stars are...

Homework Statement I have to calculate the mass of an astrometric binaries with P=10 years, and a1=15mas, parallax w=64mas the luminosity is neglected Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution i used this equation: M_1 + M_2 = \frac{(a/w)^3}{p^2} but the problem is taht i don't have M1

I am a Physics undergraduate at the University of Texas at Arlington. I am currently taking an Astrophysics class in which my professor talked about the inclination angle of the orbital plane of the binary star system and how it is impossible to determine that angle. I was wondering why is it...

KIC 8462852, aka ‘Tabby’s Star’ is in the news again, with more BS ideas about "alien megastructures'. Isn't the simplest and most likely explanation for the intensity variability that it is a binary or multiple star system and that the Earth is in the same plane as the mutual orbit ?

This is the problem given at my basic astronomy course. If I turn it in within a month correctly, I get 10 extra points in the finals. Problem: We have binary star system consisting of Star A and Star B. Astronomers have observed it for 11 years, during which it has moved from point A to point...

How can planets exist in star systems with two or three stars? Shouldn't the planets' orbits get severely disturbed by the other stars?

Homework Statement In an visual binary star system,the apparent magnitude of the primary star is m=9.8 and its spectrral type is G2V.The angular semi-major axis is φ=0''.1 and the period of the system is 24y.Find the distance of the system r and the two masses.The Sun's absolute magnitude is...

I am trying to use Kepler Data for Eclipsing Binaries to estimate time period, and then other parameters such as mass, eccentricity, semi-major axis, distance, etc. of the binary systems. I want to write code in MATLAB which will use FFT to find the time period. The available data has the...

I can't think of an instance of this in science fiction, but then I do not have the broadest knowledge of the field, so I could have missed something obvious to everyone else. I wonder, though, could a planet form at the center of mass of a binary star system or be captured there, and could...

Homework Statement Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution the solution says to equate the moments about C or equate the centripetal forces but the moments, they used M1R1 = M2R2 how does the above represent the moment, and why is the moment even equal?similarly, why is the centripetal...

What does the metric matrix look like for a binary star system? Does each follow its usual geodesic about the other? It seems like the solution would have to be different somehow than that for a tiny planet circling a big sun.

I was thinking about the motion of two stars in a binary star system, but there is something I cannot quite figure out. Suppose you have a binary star system with two stars masses m1 and m2 with m2>m1 so that m2 is closer to the centre of mass of the system. Then when the two stars are as far...

Good night! Please, what happens to an object (eg a spaceship) placed exactly in the center of mass of a binary star system (composed by two similar stars)? Would it be compressed by a huge gravitational mass (something like the mass of both stars)? Would it be stretched and torn? Or would it...

Can someone explain why the probability of the inclination angle of a binary system being less than i_0 is 1-cos(i_0) i.e. why the fractional distribution of binary stars is df = sini * di, where i is the inclination angle? Where does the sin i come from? Why is not not uniformly distributed...

Homework Statement A binary star system at a distance of 85pc consists of two stars of equal luminosity that are so close together that they are observed in a telescope as a single image. If the apparent magnitude of the two stars combined is 10.7 what would be the apparent magnitude of just...

So here's my problem: The distance between two stars is constant(d = 4,3 * 1010m), and they have a common center of mass. Ms = mass of our star, ma = 0,82 * Ms and mb = 2,2 * Ms. What I'm supposed to do is calculate the period of orbit of both stars, which is the same for them both, since the...

Homework Statement How do I show that for a binary star system, if one star has mass ##M_s##, speed ##V_s##, period ##P##, the mass of the other star is given by: ##M_P^3 \approx \frac{V_s^3}{2\pi G} PM_s^2##? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution \frac{GM_pM_s}{(a_p+a_s)^2} =...

The problem is attached, and the official answer is given. The step in the answer does not make a lot of sense to me. How does the luminosity L converted directly into distance d, and why is the solar distance is used? And where does the dm=0.75 come from. It's just not making sense to me...

Hello, I wasn't sure whether I should post this is the homework section since it's technically a textbook problem, but I figured I'd get better responses here. The problem is as follows: Sirius is a visual binary with a period of 49.94 years. Its measured parallax is .37931"## \pm...

Does anyone know which type of orbit is most likely to result in habitable worlds in a binary star system -- a planet orbiting one of the two stars, or orbiting both of the stars, or are they both very likely/unlikely? Wikipedia quotes a paper that simulated binary stars and found that 50-60%...

why the binary star revolving around center of mass ? could type 2 supernova ever had a stellar wind after explosion ?

Homework Statement Angular separation of stars 1.5 arcsecs Parallax 0.0050 arcsecs Apparent vis magnitude 2.5 (star a) and 7.5 (star b) The two stars may be in orbit about each other in a binary system, or may be separate stars viewed by chance in almost the same direction in the sky. (i)...

I am tasked with modeling a binary star system using VPython. The language itself is relatively irrelevant, as I can deal with the syntax. My problem is with the logic of it and how I should go about structuring the necessary calculations. Homework Statement A binary star system consists of...

I was looking over my old physics course problems, and I can't figure out how I'm doing this one wrong. Homework Statement Two identical stars, each having mass and radius M=2*10^29 kg and R = 7 *10^8 m are initially at rest in outer space. Their initial separation (between centers) is the...

Homework Statement (a) Consider a binary star system in which the two stars have masses M1 and M2 and the stars move on circular orbits separated by a distance R. Derive the formula for the period of revolution. (b) Suppose M1= 1.22M and M2= 0.64M (where M = mass of the sun) and R= 0.63...

Homework Statement Suppose that you decide to look at a known binary star system. The system is too far away to resolve the individual stars, so it appears to be just one point of light. By looking at the spectrum of the system, though, you should be able to use the Doppler shift to determine...

Homework Statement A binary star system consists of a hot main sequence star (m=0.5m) and a red giant (m=1.2m), the parallax of the system is p=0.0012". Calculate the apparent magnitude of the system. Homework Equations I have b1/b2 = 2.512^(m2-m1) and p=1/r The Attempt at a...

It seems to me, from my understanding of the Lagrange points, that a binary system with the appropriate mass ratio between stars could support planets in the L4 and L5 Lagrange points (I've encountered this, actually, in science fiction; Larry Niven put such a planet in the Procyon system for...

A binary star system has two stars, each with the same mass as our sun, separated by 1.6x10^12 m. A comet is very far away and essentially at rest. Slowly but surely, gravity pulls the comet toward the stars. Suppose the comet travels along a straight line that passes through the midpoint...

Homework Statement By performing CCD photometry on a pair of nearby stars A and B we obtain their relative magnitudes in the V filter and their colors: Star A: mV = 8.70 , (B − V )= 1.30 Star B: mV = 11.90 , (B − V )= 1.81 Star A is known to be a of a main sequence K0V type, while no other...

Homework Statement Two stars, S1 and S2, with effective temperature of Te,1=25000 K and Te,2= 2000 K and photospheric radius of R1=Rsun/100 and R2=50 Rsun make a binary system. If the Star S2 is in circular orbit around the S1 with revolution period of P=180 days (1 day=24 hours), and S1 has a...

Application of the Doppler effect and Kepler's 3rd law Homework Statement (*This isn't the exact wording from a textbook, just as I had copied it down) An eclipsing binary star system containing stars A and B in concentric orbits (about their common centre of mass) has it's maximum red- and...

Actually I was studying on 2nd postulate of special relativity. There I saw Ritz's emission hypotheses says for an object moving directly towards (or away from) the observer at v metres per second, this light would then be expected to still be traveling at (c + v) or (c − v) metres. Now...

Homework Statement A binary star system consists of a star P and a star Q, of mass 4.0 x 10^10 kg and 2.0 x 10^10 kg respectively, separated 6.3 x 10^9 m apart. Star P and Star Q move in circular orbits with their centers at the center of mass which remains at rest. Find the position of...

Homework Statement 2 stars are separated by a distancce r, one star has mass 2/3M the other has mass 2M (M is a solar mass). The period of revolution is 5 years, calculate r. Homework Equations Fg=(GM1M2)/r^2 The Attempt at a Solution Ok so I know that the binary star...

Homework Statement Consider an unresolved binary star at a distance of 500pc consisting of an A1V dwarf and a K0III giant star. compute mb and mv and B-V for this object we know the mass, luminosty, radius, Mbol , Mv, Te , and B-V for each individual star. Homework Equations...

mass of a star... given is a binary star system, with mass m1=6*1.99*10^30kg, radius =r1, v=270km/s, orbital period, T=1.7days... the other star of the binary system(compact and dense)with mass m2, and radius r2 orbits around a same common point... (r1>r2, G=6.67*10^-11Nm^2kg^-2)...

Homework Statement Two stars are in a circular visual binary system. The orbital period of the binary is 30 years. The distance to the binary is 20 parsecs. The angular radius of the orbit of each star is 1". What are the masses of the two stars? Homework Equations I am assuming that...

Homework Statement Consider a binary star system in which the two stars have masses M1 = 1.24 solar masses and M2 = 3.04 solar masses. The period of star 1 is 142 yr. The eccentricity of star 1 is \epsilon = 0.691. Use G = 6.67259 × 10−11 Nm2/kg2, take the astronomical unit to be...

Homework Statement I have to write a computer program to simulate a binary star system and I can not assume that the larger mass is stationary. I am given their respective masses, and the period of the system. I am just wondering how to find the write combination of initial velocity and...

This question has been bugging me... I've rephrased the question a bit so it shouldn't require much astrophysics knowledge to understand, just a bit of regular physics. Consider a binary star system. By doing some geometry based on visual observations of the positions of the two stars over...

For my vector calc class we were given an assingment to do some stuff with a binary star system. You might note the lack of vectors and the lack of calc; this is because I am just having an issue with the setup. I am sure I can get the rest without assistance. We are given the two stars of...

Homework Statement Two individual stars in a binary system (m1=mo, m2=2mo) are in circular orbit about their common centre of mass and are separated by a distance ro. At some stage, the more massive star explodes - resulting in the two stars having equal mass after the explosion...

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0210/11planet/ This is the only discovered planetary orbit around a close binary star that I know about. I have some general questions about planetary orbits around or within close binary systems or even the further apart binary star formations or triples...

I was listening to the regional NPR station yesterday and hear a brief discussion of two binary systems. http://stardate.org/radio/program.php?f=detail&id=2009-12-26 Is this common? Is it plausible? I presume that some how the velocity of Mu Columbae and the other star traveling 'north'...