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A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars using a telescope, in which case they are called visual binaries. Many visual binaries have long ...
In a binary system, the brighter or more massive object is referred to as primary, and the other the secondary. Binary stars are also classified based on orbit. Wide binaries are objects with orbits that keep them apart from one another. They evolve separately and have very little effect on each other.
Planets that orbit just one star in a binary pair are said to have "S-type" orbits, whereas those that orbit around both stars have "P-type" or "circumbinary" orbits. It is estimated that 50–60% of binary stars are capable of supporting habitable terrestrial planets within stable orbital ranges. [4]
Binary star system detected near Sagittarius A*. This image indicates the location of the newly discovered binary star D9, which is orbiting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the ...
A star system of two stars is known as a binary star, binary star system or physical double star. If there are no tidal effects, no perturbation from other forces, and no transfer of mass from one star to the other, such a system is stable, and both stars will trace out an elliptical orbit around the barycenter of the system indefinitely.
Sirius is a binary star system consisting of two white stars orbiting each other with a separation of about 20 AU [e] (roughly the distance between the Sun and Uranus) and a period of 50.1 years. The brighter component, termed Sirius A, is a main-sequence star of spectral type early A , with an estimated surface temperature of 9,940 K . [ 14 ]
The Hulse–Taylor pulsar (known as PSR B1913+16, PSR J1915+1606 or PSR 1913+16) is a binary star system composed of a neutron star and a pulsar which orbit around their common center of mass. It is the first binary pulsar ever discovered.
Unlike true orbital velocity, radial velocity can be determined from Doppler spectroscopy of spectral lines in the light of a star, [3] or from variations in the arrival times of pulses from a radio pulsar. [4] A binary system is called a single-lined spectroscopic binary if the radial motion of only one of the two binary components can be ...