Dancing with the (Six) Stars, or, a 200 year story of the Castor system
Astronomers study the orbits of a sextuplet system, an absurdly complex arrangement of six stars in orbit around one another, in order to measure their masses once and for all.
Could Stripped Stars be False Positives in the Search for the Missing Black Holes?
The authors of today’s article argue that stripped B-type stars could be a source of false positives in the search for quiet, stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way
Defining Gravity: Can Wide Binaries be a Definitive Test of Modified Newtonian Gravity Theories?
Today’s paper posits that precise observations of wide binaries can be used, in conjunction with simulations, to test the validity of modified gravity theories!
Could Companion Stars Cause Stripped-Envelope Supernovae?
How do you make a supernova without hydrogen and helium lines? The answer may surprise you! (It’s probably binary stars)
The Case of the Missing Black Hole
A rare triple system consisting of two stars and a black hole was thought to be in our cosmic backyard. Can new observations from the ESO make the black hole vanish into thin air?
(Mis)alignment Between Exoplanets and Binary Stars
Binary star systems host exoplanets too! But are planetary orbits aligned or misaligned relative to the stellar companion?