2
Eclipsing Binary Stars
•System
seen “edge-on”
•Stars
pass in front of each other
•Brightness
drops when either is hidden
•Used
to measure:
–size
of stars (relative to orbit)
–relative
“surface brightness”
•area
hidden is same for both eclipses
•drop
bigger when hotter star hidden
–tells
us system is edge on
•useful
for spectroscopic binaries
From our text: Horizons, by Sees