Lecture 6: Binaries, clusters and variables

Further reading

• The site "Astronomy 162 Digital Movie Gallery" by Richard Pogge, http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Movies/ has a nice collection of simulations of various types of binaries.
• There's an article about the discovery of the new stable orbits in "Strange Orbits" by Ivars Peterson, http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_4_9_01.html. The java applet showing some of the incredibly weird orbits which have been found is at http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~charlie/3body/
• Brian Schmidt at ANU, who last year won the Nobel Prize, has a very good page about Type Ia Supernovae and using them to measure the expansion of the universe, at "The Accelerating Universe: an explanation for the interested non-scientist", http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~brian/PUBLIC/public.html
• Paul Freire keeps an up-to-date listing of pulsars in globular clusters at http://www.naic.edu/~pfreire/GCpsr.html
• If you'd like to get involved in networks of amateur astronomers, your best starting point is your local amateur astronomy organisation (list available at http://www.quasarastronomy.com.au/society.htm). A couple of sites of the web, where you can find out about what amateurs do for variable star research, are:
  • The Center for Backyard Astrophysics, http://cbastro.org/
  • The American Association of Variable Star Observers is at http://www.aavso.org. There is a press release at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast14mar_2m/ describing how in 2000 a group of amateurs and AAVSO members located the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst.

Source for images

• Binary stars: from "How To Find A Binary System's Habitable Zone" http://www.iflscience.com/space/how-find-binary-stars-habitable-zone
• Wide binary: image by Karen Teramura, from "Wide Binary Stars: Long-Distance Stellar Relationships" http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/WideBinaryStars/
• Contact binary: painting by Don Dixon, from http://www.scifi-az.com/dixon/ddbetalyrae.htm
• Light curve of AE Phe: from Maceroni et al. 1994, "Surface imaging of late-type contact binaries I: AE Phoenicis and YY Eridani", A&A 288, 529; Doppler image from Barnes et al. 2004, "High-resolution Doppler images of the spotted contact binary AE Phe", MNRAS 348, 1321
• Orbit of Castor: from "Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier" by John Fix, Fig. 21.1 http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/fix/student/chapter21/21f01.html
• Hierarchical doubles: redrawn from "Multiple Stellar Systems: Types and Stability" by Peter Leonard, Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics, ed. Paul Murdin, article 1854. (IPP 2001)
• Image of Castor: from "Double Stars" by Jack Schmidling, http://schmidling.netfirms.com/doubst.htm
• Spectroscopic binary animation: from "Astronomy 162 Digital Movie Gallery" by Richard Pogge, http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Movies/. Used with permission
• Castor: from Jodrell Bank Constellations, http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/AList/Gemini.html
• Alpha Cen orbit: from http://phl.upr.edu/press-releases/aplanetarysystemaroundourneareststarisemerging. Image: from APOD 2011 July 3 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110703.html
• Figure 8 orbit: from Charlie McDowell, http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~charlie/3body/
• V838 Mon shell: from http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2006/50/
• Chinese records of supernova: from "Historical Supernovae" by B. Aschenbach, G. Boerner & Q. B. Li http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/HIGHLIGHT/2000/highlight0005_e.html
• SN 1006: imagined image by Tunc Tezel from APOD 2006 April 30 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060430.html; Chandra image from APOD 2005 December 26 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051226.html
• Tycho's supernova: from "Astronomen Tycho Brahe", http://www.landskrona.se/kultur/tychobrahe/sv_tychobrahe/index.html
• Brightness of the historical supernovae: from "Astronomy 122: Birth and Death of Stars" by Jim Brau: Stellar Explosions, http://blueox.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr122
• Cataclysmic variable: from "Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy" by Thomas Arny, Fig. 14.3 http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/arny/instructor/graphics/ch14/1403.html
• Classical nova light curve: from "Birth and Death of Stars" by Jim Schombert, http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast222/lectures/lec14.html
• Nova Centauri 2013: from APOD 2013 December 7 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131207.html
• Cataclysmic variable: from "Cataclysmic Variables", http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/cvs/cvs.html
• Nova outburst: from NASA's Observatorium: Stellar Evolution & Death, http://observe.nasa.gov/nasa/space/stellardeath/stellardeath_4a2.html
• Nova Cygni shell: from Astronomy Picture of the Day, 1995 December 27 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951227.html
• Type Ia supernova: from "Astronomy 122: Birth and Death of Stars" by Jim Brau: Stellar Explosions http://blueox.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr122
• Simulation of a supernova in Centaurus A: from The Supernova Cosmology Project: What we can "See" in a Supernova, http://www-supernova.lbl.gov/public/figures/snvidea.html
• Supernova 1994D in the galaxy NGC 4526: from APOD 2015 May 31 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150531.html
• Spectrum of the shell of DQ Her, taken in 1978, 44 years after the nova outburst: from the original paper by Williams et al. 1978, ApJ 224, 171
• Light curve of V838 Mon: from paper by Retter & Marom, 2003, MNRAS 345 L25 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003MNRAS.345L..25R
• Cepheid period-luminosity relation: from "Stars and Galaxies" by Richard McCray, http://cosmos.colorado.edu/cw2/courses/astro1120/text/chapter8/lesson8.html
• Nova outbursts: from NASA's Observatorium: Stellar Evolution and Death http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/space/stellardeath/stellardeath_4b2.html
• HST shells from V838 Mon: from Hubble Heritage Project, http://heritage.stsci.edu/2005/02/index.html; 2006 images, from Hubblesite http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2006/50/
• M5 from HST: from 2015 June 20 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150620.html
• Jewel Box cluster, NGC 4755: picture by Mike Bessell, from Astronomy Picture of the Day2001 June 18 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010618.html
• Sizes of clusters: after Figure 1 from M. Davies 2002, "Stellar Exotica produced from Stellar Encounters", in "Omega Centauri", ASP Conf. Proc. Vol. 265 ed. van Leeuwen, Hughes & Piotto (ASP), p. 215
• Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams of clusters: from "Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy" by Thomas Arny, Fig. 13.24 http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/arny/instructor/graphics/ch13/1324.html
• The Pleiades: from "Stars and Galaxies" by Richard McCray, http://cosmos.colorado.edu/cw2/courses/astro1120/text/chapter5/lesson5.html
• Simulation of molecular cloud collapse: from Matthew Bate's Animations, http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/mbate/animations.html
• Pleaides: image by Marco Lorenzi, from APOD 2015 Jun 17 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130501.html
• The globular cluster Omega Centauri: image by Joaquin Polleri & Ezequiel Etcheverry, from APOD 2013 May 1 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130501.html
• 47 Tucanae: ground and space-based images, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 1997 November 4 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971104.html
• The globular cluster M3: image by Karel Teuwen, from APOD 2007 June 9 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070609.html; H-R diagram from "Stars and Galaxies" by Richard McCray, http://cosmos.colorado.edu/cw2/courses/astro1120/text/chapter5/lesson5.html
• X-ray sources in M15: wide field image, from Hubble Heritage Project, http://heritage.stsci.edu/2000/25/. Optical and X-ray images of core, from Chandra Photo Album: More Images of M15 http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/m15/more.html
• Pulsars in 47 Tuc: from Jodrell Bank Observatory: Discover helps to solve mystery in globular clusters http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/47Tuc/; 2D positions from "The 47 Tucanae Pulsars home page" http://www2.naic.edu/~pfreire/47Tuc/
• Encounters with binaries: after Figure 2 from M. Davies 2002, "Stellar Exotica produced from Stellar Encounters", in "Omega Centauri", ASP Conf. Proc. Vol. 265 ed. van Leeuwen, Hughes & Piotto (ASP), p. 215
• Binary/single star encounters: from Steinn Sigurdsson http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/steinn/research/pretty.html
• Blue stragglers in NGC 6397: from Hubble Heritage http://heritage.stsci.edu/2003/21/index.html
• Ways to make a blue straggler: from Hubblesite http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/35/
• Cluster simulation: by Simon Portegies Zwart http://staff.science.uva.nl/~spz/index.html

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Last updated 30 October 2015