Binary Stars

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Victoria Yin | Honors Physics | 2012
Did you know that more than 50% of all star systems are binary stars? Half of the stars we see are actually multiple stars, revolving around a common center of mass.

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Overview 

What are binary stars?

• Binary stars are two or more stars that revolve around a common center of mass.

What types of binary stars are there?

• Visual binaries- individual stars in the system can be seen through a telescope
• Spectroscopic binaries- stars of the system appear as a single star even when seen through a telescope
• Eclipsing binaries- if one component star passes directly in front of the other, it blocks out its light

Kepler’s Laws apply to binary stars

• Stars orbit in ellipses around a common center of mass
• Each star sweeps out areas (radius vectors) twice its own width
• Stars must orbit at different speeds because these areas offer differ greatly
• The period can be calculated using this equation 

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