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TOPIC: Very Low Mass Objects

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Apr 18 04:33 2007

The Hang-loose Binary	Permalink

A newly spotted pair of tiny stars that holds the record for the longest-distance celestial embrace is bound by only a thread of gravity and might one day break up. The stars are separated by 5,100 astronomical units (AU), where one AU is the distance between the Earth and Sun. Astronomers have dubbed the pair (2MASS J012655.49-502238.8 and 2MASS J012702.83-502321.1) the Hang-loose Binary. The previous record holder for long-distance binary stars was the Koenigstuhl 1AB system, in which the stars are separated by about 1,800 AU. The weak gravitational tether binding the two stars in the Hang-loose Binary results in an orbital dance so slow that one orbit takes 500,000 years to complete. On a human scale, this system would appear as two baseballs orbiting each other about 300 kilometres apart. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Apr 11 21:05 2007

Very Low Mass Objects	Permalink

2MASS J012655.49-502238.8 and 2MASS J012702.83-502321.1 Astronomers have serendipitously discovered a record-breaking pair of low-mass objects with an extreme orbital separation. The petite objects, each of which has a mass less than 100 times that of Jupiter and could be either stars or brown dwarfs, are separated by more than 5,000 times the distance between the Sun and Earth a value that breaks the previous record by a factor of three and leaves the duration of their future together uncertain. The celestial duo is tethered by a weak gravitational link that results in an orbital dance so slow that it takes at least 500,000 years to complete a single revolution. Scaled down, this system would be like two baseballs orbiting each other about 300 kilometres apart. Credit Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Read more __________________

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