When observed for a long time, some stars seem to change the amount of light emitting. It can be caused due to two reason. Either they are a variable star (which I will discuss in a separate post) or they are in a binary system and one star had eclipsed the other.
In order to understand the massive paragraph above, you will have to understand the term 'binary stars."
BINARY STARS
Binary stars are a system of two stars which are gravitationally bound to each orbit a common centre (called the barycentre).
These two stars can differ in shape, size, masses and stability. The larger star is called the primary star and the smaller star is called the secondary or the companion star.
The eclipses of these stars are very much important to us. These can help us in determining their size, shape, masses, diameters, and sometimes their orbits too.
Binary stars might seem uncommon but about 85% of the total stars exist in binary systems.
THE DEMON AND THE DOPPLER EFFECT
With some binary stars, we are lucky enough to discover their orbits simply by looking at them, but that is really not the case very often. For instance Algol (meaning demon in Arabic).
In this binary stars system, the two stars are so close, that it is almost impossible to distinguish them as individuals, even through a telescope.
In such cases, the Doppler effect comes into help. The Doppler effect help in determining their individual orbits as they move farther from us and the colour of the light coming from them changes too.
ALLIANCE
If the two stars are very close, then one star's tidal effect can affect the other's shape and size, and hence influencing it's lifespan. These stars can sometimes collide to form elements like gold and platinum.
MULTIPLE STAR SYSTEM
just like two star system, multiple star systems also exist, though these are somewhat uncommon to find.
That is it for this post.
See you next Sunday!
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