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Light & Binary Stars

2/28/2013

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Picture
Light is all around us - lets us see things but is still somewhat of a mystery.  Is light a wave or a particle?  Both as it turns out.  Light behaves as a wave but has particle-like features as well (as in "pressure").  Wavelength determines the type of light such as - radio waves (longest) to gamma rays (shortest).  What we see as visible light is just a very small part of a set of millions of frequencies called "color."  Visible light can be broken down and studied.  That's called spectroscopy - or the way light is filtered through a prism or a plastic "diffraction grading" and analyzed.  That's how astronomers can figure out what stars; planetary atmospheres; comets and other celestial objects are made of. 
Binary star systems are two stars that orbit each other.  Most stars in the Universe are part of a "multiple star system" - meaning two or more.  Astronomers know this by breaking down the light sources (spectroscopy)  from what looks like a single star - even in a powerful telescope.  
Planets around multiple star systems (click for the youtube video) are now thought to be more prevalent than single star systems like our Sun (or "Sol").  So a "Star Wars" Universe and the fictional planet "Tatooine" with two suns setting is now way more likely.  Wait for NASA's Kepler Spacecraft to see how many Earth-like planets are out there.      

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    astrodad

    Astronomy teacher 20+ years; father of three.

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