Eclipsing binary stars

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Eclipsing binary stars discovered by high school students at SMU summer research program

Treasures of the night sky: Pairs of stars orbit around each other so closely their outer atmospheres touch, so they dim and brighten.

Two Dallas high school students discovered five stars as members of an SMU summer physics research program that enabled them to analyze data gleaned from a high-powered telescope in the New Mexico desert.

All five stars are eclipsing contact binary stars, pairs of stars that orbit around each other so closely that their outer atmospheres touch. As the stars eclipse, they dim and then brighten as one emerges from behind the other.

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Edited August 21, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Shiloh17]

I bet they have a tide on both stars that is a firestorm like nothing we've ever seen before. I would like to see that for real, through pictures.