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Article: A dizzying orbit for a binary star.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 11, 1986
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1986 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A dizzying orbit for a binary star
The closer two orbiting bodies are, the faster they go around. Johannes Kepler determined that back in the 17th century, and it's still true. Known periods of binary stars -- pairs of stars gravitationally bound to each other and orbiting their common center of mass -- range from years for fairly distant pairs to the recently discovered shortest astronomical orbital period on record -- 11 minutes.
The 11-minute orbit belongs to a binary system consisting presumably of a neutron star and a whte dwarf star orbiting each other at a distance of 80,000 miles, about a third of the distance between the earth and the moon. ...