News tagged with binary stars

Ultra-cool companion helps reveal giant planets

(Phys.org) -- An international team of astronomers led by David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire has found a brown dwarf that is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. Described as ultra-cool, it has ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cairo Calendar shows Egyptians discovered binary Algol first

(Phys.org) -- Algol, aka the Demon Star, is actually a binary star in the Perseus constellation, and has been the subject of speculation for hundreds of years. Now a group of Finnish researchers propose that ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 02, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 5 | with audio podcast report

Binary star system found by following gamma-ray signal

(PhysOrg.com) -- To find a binary star system, which is where two stars are in close proximity to one another, astronomers have traditionally relied on pure luck. They’d first start studying what would look like a single ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

New class of planetary systems: Astronomers find two new planets orbiting double suns

Using data from NASA’s Kepler Mission, astronomers announced the discovery of two new transiting “circumbinary” planet systems -- planets that orbit two stars. This work establishes that such ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

In a star's final days, astronomers hunt 'signal of impending doom'

(PhysOrg.com) -- An otherwise nondescript binary star system in the Whirlpool Galaxy has brought astronomers tantalizingly close to their goal of observing a star just before it goes supernova.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 30, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (13) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Could black trees blossom in a world with two suns?

(PhysOrg.com) -- A sky with two suns is a favourite image for science fiction films, but how would a binary star system affect life evolving on an orbiting planet?

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 19, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (18) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Astronomers discover merging star systems that might explode (w/ Video)

Sometimes when you're looking for one thing, you find something completely different and unexpected. In the scientific endeavor, such serendipity can lead to new discoveries. Today, researchers who found the ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 16, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Supernova shrapnel found in meteorite

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified the microscopic shrapnel of a nearby star that exploded just before or during the birth of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 09, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Two Peas in an Irregular Pod

(PhysOrg.com) -- Our sun may be an only child, but most of the stars in the galaxy are actually twins. The sibling stars circle around each other at varying distances, bound by the hands of gravity.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 20, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Most extreme white dwarf binary system found with orbit of just 5 minutes

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers, including Professor Tom Marsh and Dr Danny Steeghs from the University of Warwick, have shown that the two stars in the binary HM  Cancri definitely revolve ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 08, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (23) | comments 19 | with audio podcast

Rapid supernova could be new class of exploding star

(PhysOrg.com) -- An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (18) | comments 6

Oddball stars explained

(PhysOrg.com) -- New observations solve longstanding mystery of tipped rotation. In addition to shedding light on how binary stars form, the explanation knocks down a possible challenge to Einstein's theory ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 17, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (9) | comments 2

Geriatric pulsar still kicking

(PhysOrg.com) -- The oldest isolated pulsar ever detected in X-rays has been found with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This very old and exotic object turns out to be surprisingly active.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 26, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 7

Even stars get fat -- And 'stellar cannibalism' is the reason

Researchers have discovered evidence that blue stragglers in globular clusters, whose existence has long puzzled astronomers, are the result of 'stellar cannibalism' in binary stars. In other words, binary ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 14, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Capturing planets

(Phys.org) -- The discovery of planets around other stars has led to the realization that alien solar systems often have bizarre features - at least they seem bizarre to us because they were so unexpected. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast