Lecture 5

Celestial Mechanics & Binary Systems

— Binary stellar systems

 Exercise
Sirius is a visual binary with a period of about 50 yr. Its distance from the Earth is
about 8X1016 m. Assuming that the plane of the orbit is in the plane of the sky, the
true angular extent of the semi-major axis of the reduced mass is 7.61’’. The ratio
of the distances of Sirius A and Sirius B from the center of mass is a A /aB = 0.5.
What is the mass of each member of the system?

Hubble Space Telescope image of Sirius A and Sirius B

 Exercise
Sirius is a visual binary with a period of about 50 yr. Its distance from the Earth is
about 8X1016 m. Assuming that the plane of the orbit is in the plane of the sky, the
true angular extent of the semi-major axis of the reduced mass is 7.61’’. The ratio
of the distances of Sirius A and Sirius B from the center of mass is a A /aB = 0.5.
What is the mass of each member of the system?

a = d * alpha

= 8X1016 m * 7.61* (2*PI)/(360*60*60)

= 3X1012 m

m1+m2 = 3.2 solar masses

Hubble Space Telescope image of Sirius A and Sirius B
 Exercise
Sirius is a visual binary with a period of about 50 yr. Its distance from the Earth is
about 8X1016 m. Assuming that the plane of the orbit is in the plane of the sky, the
true angular extent of the semi-major axis of the reduced mass is 7.61’’. The ratio
of the distances of Sirius A and Sirius B from the center of mass is a A /aB = 0.5.
What is the mass of each member of the system?

a = d * alpha

= 8X1016 m * 7.61* (2*PI)/(360*60*60)

= 3X1012 m

m1+m2 = 3.2 solar masses

 Eclipsing binary

◆ Many binary stars are

detected in eclipsing systems.
◆ These eclipsing binaries are
very valuable, as they permit
the simultaneous
determination of stellar mass,
radius, and if their distances
are known, effective
temperature and hence
luminosity.
 Eclipsing binary
◆ When can a binary system more likely detected as an eclipsing binary?

◆ A. When the inclination i as in the

figure is close to 90 deg
◆ B. When the distance between the
two stars are close
◆ C. When the binary orbit is more
circular
◆ D. When the binary orbit is more
elliptical
 Eclipsing binary
◆ For one star to eclipse another, the orbital plane must be close or
exactly perpendicular to the plane of the sky (i.e., i ≈ 90°).
◆ Also it is more likely for eclipses to happen if the two stars are closely
separated. Eclipsing binary systems are therefore quite likely to have
circular or only weakly-eccentric orbits due to tidal circularization.
 Light curves: inclination
◆ Light curve: how the brightness (“luminosity”) varies with time
◆ If the light curve during eclipse exhibits a constant minimum, the
orbital inclination must be almost exactly if not exactly 90°.
 Light curves: inclination
◆ If the light curve during eclipse does not exhibit a constant minimum,
the orbital inclination must differ significantly from 90°.
◆ The orbital inclination can be constrained from the shape of the
eclipse light curve.
 Light curves: inclination
◆ Example light curves of eclipsing binary systems. Which systems likely
have orbital inclinations of almost exactly 90°?
 Light curves: inclination
◆ Example light curves of eclipsing binary systems. Which systems likely
have orbital inclinations of almost exactly 90°? V986 Sgr
 Light curves: temperature
◆ Example light curves of eclipsing binary systems. Note that, in
general, the two dips in each light curve have different depths. Why?
 Light curves: temperature
◆ Example light curves of eclipsing binary systems. Note that, in
general, the two dips in each light curve have different depths. The
two stars have different temperatures.
Blackbody radiation from a hot surface
surface area
of a sphere

• L = total energy output rate (luminosity)

• R = radius or size
• Area = 4 π R (sphere)
2

• σ = Stefan-Boltzmann constant
• T = temperature of the radiating surface in K
• The absolute brightness of a star depends on its
size (R) and temperature (T).
Blackbody radiation from a hot surface
surface area
of a sphere

• Suppose you double T while keeping R, what

happens to L?
• Suppose you double R while keeping T, what
happens to L?
fixed. What happens to L?
Blackbody radiation from a hot surface
surface area
of a sphere

• Suppose you double T while keeping R, what

happens to L? L→16L
• Suppose you double R while keeping T, what
happens to L? L→4L
• L is very sensitive to T. When T increases a
bit, the luminosity increases a lot.
fixed. What happens to L?
 Inverse Square Law
• Just a geometrical effect
• Light from a point source
(e.g., a light bulb or a star)
gets spread out in all
directions.
• The rate of total amount of
(the energy of) light passing
through any spherical
surface around the source
should stay constant.
• The intensity of light
(energy per unit surface
How bright we perceive a star to be area) diminishes with the
depends on both its intrinsic inverse square of the
luminosity and its distance from us. distance from the source.

apparent
brightness
 Inverse Square Law
• Thought experiment: If we
live in a two-dimensional world
instead of a 3D one, how
should the brightness of light
diminish with distance?

• How about in a one-dimensional

world?
fixed. What happens to L?

How bright we perceive a star to be

depends on both its intrinsic
luminosity and its distance from us.

apparent
brightness
Inverse Square Law
• Thought experiment: If we live
in a two-dimensional world
instead of a 3D one, how should
the brightness of light diminish
with distance?
(b = L / 2𝜋d)

• How about in a one-dimensional

world? (b=L)
fixed. What happens to L?

Movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyuNrm4VK2w
 Light curves: temperature
◆ Example light curves of eclipsing binary systems. Note that, in
general, the two dips in each light curve have different depths. The
two stars have different temperatures. (Area covered during the
eclipses are always the same.)
 Light curves: size/mass
◆ What else can we constrain from the light curve?
◆ What if the two stars have similar sizes?
 Light curves: size/mass
◆ What else can we constrain from the light curve?
◆ What if the two stars have similar sizes? If the two stars have almost
exactly the same sizes. In that case, the two stars likely have the
similar mass and similar effective temperatures and hence both
eclipses should have similar depths.
 H-R diagram of stars
To be learnt later:

Most stars (~90%) fall

somewhere on the main
sequence of the H-R
diagram.

The luminosity - size - mass

of stars are strongly
correlated.

Luminous main-sequence
stars are hotter (blue).

Less luminous ones are

cooler (yellow or red).
 Light curves: size/mass
◆ Example light curves of eclipsing binary systems. Which systems may
have stars of equal sizes or masses?
 Light curves: size/mass
◆ Example light curves of eclipsing binary systems. Which systems may
have stars of equal sizes or masses? ET Vel
 Eclipsing spectroscopic binary
◆ The mass ratio of a spectroscopic binary can be determined without knowing
the orbital inclination

◆ The total mass of a spectroscopic binary can only be determined if the orbital
inclination is known

◆ For an eclipsing spectroscopic system, the orbital inclination must be quite

close to 90°. For such systems, the error introduced by the uncertainty in
orbital inclination is small: e.g., if i = 75° instead of i = 90°, the error
introduced in determining m1 + m2 is only 10%.
 Stellar radius
◆ Consider an eclipsing binary with a (nearly) circular orbit, an orbital plane at
an inclination i ≅ 90°, and the semi-major axis of the smaller star’s orbit
much larger than either star’s radius. Then the smaller star is moving
perpendicular to the observer’s line of sight during the eclipse.
◆ The velocities of the two stars can be obtained from the radial velocity
curves.
 Stellar radius
◆ The radius of the smaller star
vs + vl (vs = velocity of small star,
vl = velocity of large star)

◆ The radius of the larger star

 Stellar effective temperature
◆ The surface flux (energy per unit time per unit area at the surface) of a
blackbody is given by (see Chap. 3 of textbook)

σ = 5.670 x 10-8 W m-2 K-4

(Stefan-Boltzmann’s constant)
◆ As the same total cross-sectional area is eclipsed no matter whether the
smaller star passes behind or in front of the larger star, the dip in the light is
deeper (primary minimum) when the hotter star is eclipsed.

secondarym
primary inimum
minimum
 Stellar effective temperature
◆ Assuming for simplicity that each star is uniformly bright across its disk, the
amount of light detected outside eclipse

surface flux of larger star

surface flux of smaller star

where k is a constant that depends on the distance to the binary system,
amount of absorption by the medium between the star and telescope, and the
efficiency of the telescope/detector (which can be characterized).

secondarym
primary inimum
minimum
 Stellar effective temperature
◆ The amount of light detected during primary minimum (during which, in this
case, the smaller hotter star passes behind the larger cooler star) is

◆ The amount of light detected during secondary minimum (smaller hotter star
passes in front of the cooler larger star)

◆ If the distance to the system and the amount of light absorbed by intervening
material can be determined, then because the radii of the two stars can be
measured, the effective temperature of the individual stars can be computed.
 Stellar effective temperature
◆ If the distance to the system cannot be measured and/or the amount
of light absorbed by intervening material determined, we can still
compute the ratio of the effective temperatures from the relationship

with

so that
 Stellar effective temperature
◆ For the previous case (smaller star is hotter), the amount of light
detected during primary minimum is

◆ The amount of light detected during secondary minimum

◆ What if the smaller star is cooler than the bigger star?

secondarym
primary inimum
minimum
 Lecture 5

Celestial Mechanics & Binary Systems

— Binary stellar systems: eclipsing binary

— Next class: continue with Chapter 7 (exoplanets)