AST 101 Lecture 13: AST 101 – Lecture 13 & 14
Document Summary
Eclipsing binaries are systems in which the orientation of the orbit is such that the orbital axis is perpendicular to our line of sight. In this case, ignoring the properties of the spectrum entirely, one can see the eclipses by monitoring the apparent brightness of the binary, thus measuring the light curve of the system. Note that this can tell you the relative brightness and sizes of the two stars in the system. If you are so lucky as to find a genuine, gold-plated double-lined spectroscopic eclipsing binary, then you can determine l, m, r, t for both stars in the system. This is pretty rare, but such systems are the fundamental calibrators (other than the sun) for the basic physical parameters of stars. The study of nearby binaries has shown us that a mass-luminosity relationship exists for main sequence stars.
