Astronomy for Beginners - Binary Star Systems - Science Documentary
2Astronomy for Beginners - Binary Star Systems - Science Documentary
I thought it would be a good idea to talk more about my research into binary star systems.
Firstly, what are they? A binary star system is where 2 stars are orbiting each other, specifically orbiting around their common barycentre.
The study of binary star systems can reveal details about the stars such as the stars mass, radius and density.
It should be noted that some binary star systems can’t be seen as 2 stars with the naked eye, they just look like points of light. It’s with observations through instruments that their binary status is revealed.
The way that these systems are detected as being binaries is usually through the eclipse or transit method – where their orbit is aligned with us so one star passes in front of the other eclipsing the other star leading to a dip or decrease in their brightness. It was this kind of binary star system that I studied in my research.
Other methods of detection include: spectroscopy (which is analysis of their light), astrometry (measurements of the position and movements of celestial objects) and photometry (visual observations with telescopes or instruments).
There are different configurations of binary systems, these depend on whether the stars fill their Roche lobes or not (seen in the picture on screen). A detached system as seen in the top image, semi-detached seen in the middle and contact at the bottom.
The Roche lobe/limit is the region around a binary star within which the material is gravitationally bound to that star.
These different configurations produce different light curves if it’s an eclipsing system. A light curve is a graph plotting the change in brightness of the system.
This part of my research (which was done in a group) is what led to debate about our data. The light curve that our data produced wasn’t consistent with previous classifications of the system.
On screen now are the different types of light curves for eclipsing binary systems depending on their configuration.
The light curve our data produced was more consistent with a semi-detached system, seen in the middle of the diagram, whereas the system had been previously classified as a contact binary, you can see the light curve at the bottom of the image.
We started to investigate what could be causing this discrepancy – had the previous classification been incorrect, was something wrong with our data, or something else happening.
I found some papers investigating a binary system thought to be a rare evolutionary system, basically half way between a semi-detached and contact system. The light curves in those papers looked exactly like our light curve.
We had issues with acquiring our data so we couldn’t reach a justified conclusion but with further research it’s possible that what’s happening with this star system could be revealed.
Music:
Cylinder Two by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/cylinders/
Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/
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