Tag: Centre of Gravity

Two Weeks to Pluto! Latest News from Final Approach

ryan1 Comment
As is the case with any final approach to a new object, the early images, with their horrible resolution, pixelated appearance, and possibly false features due to processing, lead to significant speculation on what we will see as the craft approaches. It was the same a few months ago with Ceres. I personally love the blurry images. It’s a mystery waiting to be solved, and we see it unfold as we move ever closer to our destination. It also reminds me of the early days of the internet I grew up with, using a good old 28.8K modem and waiting 2...

Mystery of Lonely Old Stars Solved

ryanLeave a comment
More than two-thirds of stars are not solitary like our Sun.  They are binary systems, meaning they contain two stars that orbit each other about their common centre of gravity.  Stars like our Sun are much more rare, and we are not sure what the difference in formation is between binary and solitary systems.  Binary systems are much more useful from a scientific perspective, as we can study their orbital period and separation to infer a wide range of properties such as masses and distances.  A special class of stars, called RR Lyrae variable stars, have puzzled astronomers for years...