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What You Need to Know About
Binary Star Systems

• Visual Binaries
     Long orbits; two stars seen.
• Eclipsing Binaries
     Light curve tells the story
• Astrometric Binaries
     Only one star is seen; the other inferred
• Spectroscopic Binaries
     Shifting spectral lines
• Mass determination
     when things orbit, we can get the mass
• Light Curve
     a plot of brightness versus tinme
• Algol
     the first binary discovered

    

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Updated February 25, 2009