Many supernova impostors appear to be massive
stars in a binary system — two stars in orbit of one another.
Astrophysicists have predicted that short - duration GRBs are created when a pair of super-dense neutron
stars in a binary system spiral together.
«The size of the glitch indicates that the interiors of neutron
stars in binary systems may be quite different to the interiors of isolated neutron stars.»
They also dismissed the possibility of interference from Alpha Centauri A, the other
star in the binary system, or from an unrelated, more distant star system that could have just been passing behind.
Observations of the explosions of white dwarf
stars in binary systems, so - called Type Ia supernovae, in the 1990s then led scientists to the conclusion that a third component, dark energy, made up 68 % of the cosmos, and is responsible for driving an acceleration in the expansion of the universe.
The team sifted through data from all the x-ray sources situated within 70 light - years of Sgr A *, searching for those that had characteristics of black holes and neutron
stars in binary systems and found four sources within just three light - years of the central black hole.
But when Demos Kazanas at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and his colleagues looked at 18 years» worth of X-ray observations of neutron
stars in binary systems in the Small Magellanic Cloud, they found that half were slowing down — at the same rate as the others were accelerating.
Objects orbiting one of
the stars in a binary system will be strongly affected by the gravity of the other and so can be more easily ejected from the system than if it had just one star.
In Type 1 supernovas, one
star in the binary system is a white dwarf, a dying star that has consumed almost all of its hydrogen.
Type Ia supernovae are fairly rare in the nearby Universe and represent the explosion of at least one white dwarf
star in a binary system.
A breakthrough has been made as scientists discover a tiny
star in a binary system located around 14,800 light years away.
Left: A normal
star in a binary system pulls in matter from an aging companion star that has swelled to a bloated red giant.
Indeed, stable orbits may extend as far as one third of the closest separation between any two
stars in a binary system, but according to NASA's Kepler Mission team, numerical integration models have shown that there is a range of orbital radii between about 1/3 and 3.5 times the stellar separation for which stable orbits around two stars are not possible (Holman and Wiegert, 1999; Wiegert and Holman, 1997; and Donnison and Mikulskis, 1992).
Not exact matches
The energy spectrum and periodic fluctuations of the X-rays, recorded by the INTEGRAL satellite, suggest they are coming from young
binary star systems in which a neutron
star is stealing matter from its massive companion.
Mordehai Milgrom began his career studying objects called ultracompact neutron
stars in binary star systems.
Astronomy textbooks have long told neophyte stargazers that three of every five points of light
in the night sky are waltzing pairs of
stars called
binary systems.
In fact, the nebula contains a prominent cavity that was carved out by an energetic
binary star system.
The situation, says former LHCb spokesperson and University of Oxford physicist Guy Wilkinson, is roughly analogous to a planetary
system in which the light quark is akin to a planet orbiting a
binary pair of massive
stars.
But when Hugues Sana of the University of Amsterdam
in the Netherlands and colleagues looked at 71
stars with masses greater than 15 times that of our sun, they found that more than 70 per cent revolve with a companion
in a
binary system (Science, doi.org/h4k).
The worlds are aptly named «circumbinary planets» («circum» meaning around, and «
binary» referring to two objects), and
in this type of
binary system, the two
stars orbit each other while the planet orbits the two
stars (pictured above).
In some rare cases, a planet in a binary system may spiral around the axis that connects its two stars — although how such planets come to be is uncle
In some rare cases, a planet
in a binary system may spiral around the axis that connects its two stars — although how such planets come to be is uncle
in a
binary system may spiral around the axis that connects its two
stars — although how such planets come to be is unclear
Though our sun stands alone, about 40 percent of similar
stars are
in binary (two -
star) or multi-
star systems, orbiting their companions
in a gravitational dance.
Working with UW astronomer Eric Agol, doctoral student Ethan Kruse has confirmed the first «self - lensing»
binary star system — one
in which the mass of the closer
star can be measured by how powerfully it magnifies light from its more distant companion
star.
Kruse was looking for transits others might have missed
in data from the planet - hunting Kepler Space Telescope when he saw something
in the
binary star system KOI - 3278 that didn't make sense.
They suggested that the magnetar formed through the interactions of two very massive
stars orbiting one another
in a
binary system so compact that it would fit within the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.
«Mass exchange
in binary systems seems to be vital to account for Wolf - Rayet
stars and the supernovae they make, and catching
binary stars in this short - lived phase will help us understand this process.»
[3] Type Ia Supernovae occur when an accreting white dwarf
in a
binary star system slowly gains mass from its companion until it reaches a limit that triggers the nuclear fusion of carbon.
Reporting
in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal, astronomers say the same cloud of dust and gas that gave birth to the
star — known as 1RXS JI60929.1 - 210524 and located about 450 light - years away
in the constellation Scorpius — probably split apart, which is what often happens when
binary star systems are born.
The discovery came as a complete surprise, as the team assumed the dusty white dwarf was a single
star but co-author Dr Steven Parsons (University of Valparaíso and University of Sheffield), an expert
in double
star (or
binary)
systems noticed the tell - tale signs.
X-ray
binaries, as their name implies, occur
in a two -
star system in which a neutron
star is accompanied by a more normal, low - mass
star.
Located
in the plane of the galaxy, Circinus X-1 is the glowing husk of a
binary star system that exploded a mere 2,500 years ago.
The planet is
in a
binary star system, so it might also be the case that the second
star in the
binary made a close approach that threw HD 20782 off a more circular orbit.
«Our knowledge of
binary evolution suggests that, if the companion
star can survive the transition, brown dwarfs should be common
in this type of
system.
Residing
in the plane of the Milky Way, where it can not be observed by optical telescopes because of obscuring clouds of interstellar dust, Circinus X-1 is the glowing husk of a
binary star system that exploded
in a supernova event just 2,500 years ago.
Most
stars in our Milky Way galaxy are members of
binary systems.
The
binary star system Par 1802 within the Orion Nebula poses a riddle
in stellar evolution.
In the background is the
star's
binary companion, Kepler - 13B, and the third member of the multiple -
star system is the orange dwarf
star Kepler - 13C.
«While these
systems are interesting, they are dark
in any other form of radiation and relatively little can be understood from them compared to
binary neutron
star systems.
Regardless, the newly discovered planet leads a turbulent existence: it orbits one
star in a
binary star system, with the other
star close enough to disturb the planet's orbit.
The fastest pulsars are
in binary systems with another object, like a
star or a white dwarf.
Cygnus X-1 was found as part of a
binary star system in which an extremely hot and bright
star called a blue supergiant formed an accretion disk around an invisible object.
In the 1990s she made a series of groundbreaking observations of the still - mysterious
binary star system known as Cygnus X-3.
There are few environments more extreme than a
binary star system in which planet formation can occur.
«It's not clear that this one
system represents everything that can eventually form black hole - neutron
star binaries in the galaxy.»
Alex Mustill at Lund Observatory
in Sweden and his colleagues mimicked more general scenarios, including planets orbiting a
binary star system, and got similar results.
Next they ruled out a false positive, usually caused by an eclipsing
binary -
star system in the background, with two relatively small telescopes on the ground, which offer better spatial resolution than COROT does.
We could soon be learning more about black holes and
binary star systems, according to Marianna Yuling Mao, of Mission San Jose High School
in Fremont, Calif..
Researchers using the Very Large Telescope
in Chile have now determined IRS 2 to be a
binary system, a pair of
stars separated by about 500 times the distance between Earth and the sun.
In the original work by Brown, slightly different classes of false positives were used: MPU (main - sequence
star with a giant planet); MSU (undiluted
binaries); and the two types of diluted
binaries, MSDF (an eclipsing
binary + a third non-related
star) and MSDT (triple
systems).
In binary star systems like this one, though, the
stars will play pinball with the poor planet before losing it forever, according to simulations by Moeckel and Dimitri Veras, also at Cambridge.