New Frontiers in Binary Stars: Science at High Angular Resolution

Abstract

The mass of a star determines how it evolves throughout its lifetime from beginning to end. Understanding the fundamental relationships between stellar mass, luminosity, and radius over a range of metallicities from the current solar values to the extremely low metallicities representative of the early universe is essential to the study of stellar astrophysics. This requires measuring high precision masses for stars over a wide range of evolutionary stages. Such masses can be obtained through mapping the three-dimensional orbits of binary stars. Continuing to apply this technique to shorter period binaries and to fainter or more distant systems over the next decade requires continued access to the highest angular resolution measurements, such as those achieved through long baseline optical/infrared interferometry.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA516800

Entities

People

  • Brian D. Mason
  • Chad Bender
  • Donald Hutter
  • Francis Fekel
  • Gail Schaefer
  • John R. Monnier
  • Lawrence Wasserman
  • Lisa Prato
  • Matthew Muterspaugh
  • Michal Simon
  • Michelle Creech-eakman
  • Ming Zhao
  • Otto Franz
  • Stephen Ridgway
  • Theo Brummelaar
  • Tom Armstrong
  • William Hartkopf

Organizations

  • Georgia State University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Angular Momentum
  • Binary Stars
  • Ground Based
  • Instrumentation
  • Interferometers
  • Interferometry
  • Luminosity
  • Measurement
  • Momentum
  • Observation
  • Observatories
  • Optical Interferometers
  • Phase Measurement
  • Physical Properties
  • Radial Velocity
  • Spectroscopy
  • Stars

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space