Ep. 152: Binary Stars

Artist's illustration of a cataclysmic variable

Did you know that our Solar System is a rarity with its single star. Astronomers believe that most star systems out there actually contain 2 or more stars – imagine seeing a sky with 4 suns. These binary and multiple star systems are a great target for new astronomers, and the dynamics of multiple stars keep astrophysicists busy too. Let's take a look at what it would be like to live on Tatooine.

Ep. 152: Binary Stars

• Tatooine – Wookipedia
• Binary Stars — Universe Today
• Cygnus binary system
• Binary stars that merge — COSMOS
• Algol, the most famous eclipsing binary system — UTK
• Visual Binary Stars – UTK
• Mizar in the Big Dipper — Astropix
• Astrometry
• Spectroscopic Binary Stars — UTK
• Blue Stragglers — Cornell U.
• Accretion Disks — NASA
• White Dwarfs
• Electron Degenerate gas — University of Texas
• Pauli Exclusion Principle
• Alpha Centauri System

1. Steve McGee Says:
   September 30th, 2009 at 1:53 am

   Actually, if Jupiter were to be 4 or 5 time larger, it would be considered a "brown dwarf" and therefore qualify our solar system as a binary system.
   If your guest is so bored with binary systems, maybe you should have chosen someone who is excited and knows a little about and studies binaries.
   Your guest is more into variables.
   There are a great many professional and amateur astronomers doing new discoveries in the binary field. The circular, The Journal of Double Star Observations, is quite up-to-date in the field. There are 101 authors contributing to this journal.
   The binary-stars-uncensored Yahoo Group is a vibrant group of amateurs contributing to the field.
   The joy of observing, and measuring binaries are a great on-going pastime for amateurs with all sizes of scopes. This podcast doesn't inspire a budding astronomer to study binaries. It baffles the curious with wordy hypotheses requiring elaborate and sophisticated equipment to study variables.

2. Ben Says:
   September 30th, 2009 at 5:54 am

   Pamela isn't a guest Steve, she's the co-host!

   Like any other astronomer, Pamela has her own research interests and despite this, she manages to be entertaining and knowledgeable about the huge range of topics covered in Astronomy Cast's back-catalogue. Many of which she probably doesn't really engage with in her day-to-day work. To me this shows how much effort she puts in to researching the topics in her own time and for free.

   I really enjoyed this episode! I want to study X-ray binaries when I reach post-grad level and would have found this useful when I first became interested in the subject as will any budding stellar physicist now.

   Fraser and Pamela: Thanks for all your efforts and keep those catch-up shows coming!

3. Matt Says:
   October 2nd, 2009 at 6:33 am

   Astronomy Cast is great.

   I agree with Ben above. Pamela is the greatest. They provide a service weekly for FREE to us! Geeze! Some people…. Okay, back to listening to show…

   **headphones on**

   You all are doing great

4. dave fernandes Says:
   October 2nd, 2009 at 6:50 pm

   I agree with Ben as well. If you understood how hard Dr. Gay works in a week, you'd be blown away. She's an amazing individual that works to educate the community. Check out the other episodes. She's amazing and has inspired my daughter to think about astronomy.

5. Dave Dickinson Says:
   October 6th, 2009 at 8:45 am

   Thanks for the excellent piece on binaries; Dr. Gay, you and AstronomyCast rock and are one of the very few podcasts that my podcatcher never misses! Castor is one of my favorite multistar systems; enough so that I created a mock simulation of "Castor as seen from Tatooine";

   http://astroguyz.com/2009/05/25/astroevent-of-the-week-130409-castor-a-sextuplet-star/
   Enjoy!

   Thanks,

   Dave Dickinson

6. Conway Says:
   October 16th, 2009 at 2:30 am

   Well Steve Jupiter is not 4 or 5 times bigger and so remains a planet in our Solar System.. I think Dr Pamela is more than qualified to be speaking on this topic.. Keep up the good work guys….

7. Greg Slick MD Says:
   October 30th, 2009 at 9:25 pm

   I would like to express my thoughts about what a wonderful , exciting and educational site this is. It is obvious to me the HUGE amount of work put into producing these podcast. The material is accurate and presented so well that even a novice like me can grasp and understand. Good teaching looks easy but it is NOT! Thanks for your efforts and PLEASE keep up the good work!

8. Ahmed Says:
   November 13th, 2009 at 10:32 am

   Dr. Gay is a great person. I agree with all of you guys.