Are most stars members of double‐star systems?

SEP 01, 1967

Many a single point of light in your telescope is two or more stars orbiting closely about the center of mass. Much information is available from these double‐star systems, which are closer to natural experiments than any other astronomical phenomenon.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3034482

Louis Winkler

A DOUBLE‐STAR SYSTEM consists of two separate stars that orbit about the center of mass of the system much as a planet orbits the sun. For the most part, these double‐star systems appear as single points of light, even with the aid of a telescope. Nevertheless, there is evidence that a large fraction of all the single points we see are really double‐star systems.

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More about the authors

Louis Winkler, Pennsylvania State University.