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Top Document: [sci.astro] Stars (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (7/9) Previous Document: G.03 What are the biggest and smallest stars? Next Document: G.05 Where can I get stellar data (especially distances)? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
According to the work of A. Duquennoy and M. Mayor, 57% of systems
have two or more stars. They were working with a sample of F and G
stars, i.e., stars like the Sun. It appears that for the coolest,
low-luminosity stars (the M-dwarfs) there are fewer binaries. Fischer
and Marcy found that only 42% of M-dwarfs are binaries. Neill Reid
and I have used HST images to find that for the coolest stars in the
Hyades cluster (absolute magnitude > 12, or mass < 0.3 solar masses)
only 30% are binaries.
[There's also the tongue-in-cheek answer that three out of every two
stars is in a binary. TJWL]
References:
Gizis, J. & Reid, I. Neill 1995, "Low-Mass Binaries in the Hyades,"
Astronomical Journal, v. 110, p. 1248
User Contributions:Top Document: [sci.astro] Stars (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (7/9) Previous Document: G.03 What are the biggest and smallest stars? Next Document: G.05 Where can I get stellar data (especially distances)? Part0 - Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Part8 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: jlazio@patriot.net
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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