Next stop is our nearest star: Alpha Centauri. Your Journey will take a while using fusion power, so you will probably sleep for a few months. When you finally wake up near Alpha Centauri, you realize that Alpha Centauri is actually a binary star system! The two stars, Alpha-Cen-A and AlphaCen-B, have different masses; Alpha-Cen-A is more massive than Alpha-Cen-B.
(a) Draw a schematic diagram representing the orbits of the two stars, labeling the stars and indicating their orbital paths. Assume circular orbits. What is located at the center of their orbits?
(b)What is the ratio of the orbital radii of the two stars (RA/RB)? Show your work.
(c) What is the ratio of the orbital periods of the two stars (TA/TB)? Explain.
Next stop is our nearest star: Alpha Centauri. Your Journey will take a while using fusion...
Well, there is much more to see and do in the Solar System, but this tour takes you well beyond! Next stop is our nearest star: Alpha Centauri. Your Journey will take a while using fusion power, so you will probably sleep for a few months. When you finally wake up near Alpha Centauri, you realize that Alpha Centauri is actually a binary star system! The two stars, Alpha-Cen-A and Alpha-Cen-B, have different masses; Alpha-Cen-A is more massive than Alpha-Cen-B....
Before leaving Alpha Centauri, you change from the shuttle to a light speed interstellar cruiser and head out deep into the galaxy to visit another binary star system - but this one is composed of dead stars! To occupy your waking travel time by reading about this star system in the "Outer Space Tourbook": Stars spend most of their lifetimes undergoing nuclear fusion in their cores, which is why they give off so much light. However, when the material necessary...