binary star

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Pair of stars moving in orbit around their common centre of mass. Observations show that most stars are binary, or even multiple – for example, the nearest star system to the Sun, Rigil Kent (Alpha Centauri).

One of the stars in the binary system Epsilon Aurigae may be the largest star known. Its diameter is 2,800 times that of the Sun. If it were in the position of the Sun, it would engulf Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. A spectroscopic binary is a binary in which two stars are so close together that they cannot be seen separately, but their separate light spectra can be distinguished by a spectroscope.

Another type is the eclipsing binary, a double star in which the two stars periodically pass in front of each other as seen from Earth. When one star crosses in front of the other, the total light received on Earth from the two stars declines. The first eclipsing binary to be noticed was Algol, in 1670, by Italian astronomer Geminiano Montanari.

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