Binary star systems tagged posts

A team of astronomers have made the discovery of a lifetime that will help answer burning questions on the evolution of stars. The group is led by Evolutionary Studies Initiative member and Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Keivan Stassun.

Stassun’s team generated a new model that greatly improved the way stars are measured in 2017.

“Being able to combine all of the different types of measurements into one coherent analysis was certainly key to being able to decipher the various unusual characteristics of this star system,” Stassun said.

The model helps predict the types of planets orbiting distant stars—called exoplanets...

Two binary star systems narrowly missed one another, but left behind a smoking gun. Paul Kalas of UC Berkeley was puzzled by the tilted but stable orbit of a planet around a binary star – an orbit like that of our solar system’s proposed Planet Nine. He calculated backwards in time to see if any of the 461 nearby stars ever came close enough to perturb the system. One star fit the bill. The stellar flyby 2-3 million years ago likely stabilized the planet’s orbit, keeping it from flying away.

Some of the peculiar aspects of our solar system – an env...

Artist view of a planet orbiting two aging stars that exchange material and spiral closer together. Credit: Jon Lomberg

Planets that revolve around 2 suns may surprisingly survive the violent late stages of the stars’ lives, according to new research from NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre and York University. The finding is surprising because planets orbiting close to a single sun, like Mercury and Venus in our solar system, would be destroyed when the aging star swells into a red giant. The study found that planets orbiting binary stars, also referred to as circumbinary planets or “Tatooine worlds” after the iconic planetary home of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars – often escape death and destruction by moving out to wider orbits.

“This is very different from what will happen in our own solar ...